Interpretations
by JacklynnFrost
Summary: Choices cause ripples, ones that impact those you least expect. It's hard to see who you truly are as it's natural to gloss over your own sins. But, Meliodas has seen the demon inside and wants to make amends to clean his stain from the world. Elizabeth's disability makes her an easy target but he will protect her this time. Art by Lickitysplit. A Silent Voice AU
1. Wrath

Warnings: Adult themes. Suicide Idealization. Suicide. Self-blaming/loathing. Addictions. Neglect. Mental illness and disabilities. Self-doubt. Regretful Past Bullying, trying to make amends.

A/N: This has been an outlet for my own self-hatred, my own depression, and my own struggles. For those that relate, may this help you as it's helped me. Here is a song to pair with this if you want: Misanthropic Drunken Loner By Days N Daze.

**Interpretations  
**By JacklynnFrost  
Beta'd by RabidFangirl03

Chapter One: Wrath

The boy hunches over his school desk to finalize his suicide plan.

The rubber end of his government-issued #2 pencil hit his teeth in the opposite rhythm of his leg bounces. His hand raises from the edge of his notebook rings, all bent oblong from too many shoves into his overfull backpack, to weave through his chaotic hair. No matter how many times he finger-combs his locks, they stay in disarray.

With blank green eyes, weary beyond their years, Meliodas looks over his list. If there is one thing this boy knows- it's his sins. His chest grows tight, reading over the names of those he's wronged and he wonders if what he's done is forgivable. The first name is his greatest sin and he knows this one will be hardest.

He speculates to this day, this very hour, that she transferred schools because of him. Meliodas had been a very angry child. Although that anger still lives inside him, after what happened last year it's mellowed. No longer is it a burning uncontrollable fire but a deep sea of wrath. To this boy, the unpleasant feelings just under the surface of him seem inescapable outside of death.

Elizabeth.

The other names on his list are more possible, easier to handle without his chest seizing and throat closing. Vaguely he thinks if he can't find her he will have to put off his plans. Making amends to her is tantamount to his quest of removing his cruel stains. 'All of these people would have been better off without me in their lives and if I don't stop myself who's to say the list won't grow?'

With this boy's abundant rage, his plan of death more resembles a murder of himself, than a suicide.

He reads the first name over again, his eyebrow twitches and his palms become slick with sweat. The pencil is put down, his leg stops it's anxious movement as he rubs his hands over the thighs of his worn jeans. On the left pant leg, his finger slips into the torn hole from the motion and he is careful to retract it without causing more damage to the tear. The faded t-shirt with the fraying collar adds to the 'look' as if it is intentional, but anyone who cares to see Meliodas for more than a moment will know his caregivers obviously aren't involved.

Meliodas isn't one to take the easy route though. Others blame their sins on their upbringing, on the neglect or abuse but this boy is different. He hates himself for giving in to the urges, he refuses to give himself an ounce of slack and his plan guarantees he will never go back to being like his father. He vows to himself that as soon as he is redeemed, he will expunge his blackness from the earth and kill the man he fears he will inevitably become. His mind loops back to a thought that both eases him and does not, 'cut away the rot.'

Mr. Hawk stops the class as a knock sounds at the classroom door. Meliodas' head perks, more because of the disruption to the monotonous background noise than the knock, and the round teacher accepts a white piece of paper from the messenger. Other students buzz, heads tilting together and their own notes passing between hands as if the lot of them had been awaiting the chance to come alive. Mr. Hawk reads the missive and his eyes roam over the students as he speaks.

"A new student, Elizabeth Liones, will be joining us next week and has been assigned our homeroom." The heart inside Meliodas races, his eyes grow wide as he realizes even fate wants him to atone, that his actions and plans are being rewarded. This drives Meliodas into a deep belief that his suicide plan is approved by divine providence.

Mr. Hawk, a round man with overly pink cheeks, is the most oblivious man Meliodas has ever met and now is no exception. Every student that knew Meliodas from elementary school, the ones who had been there, turn in their chairs to look at him. A few have cruel smiles, others look weary, and Meliodas scowls at the lot of them, knowing he deserves every severe gaze.

If any of them offer a lashing for penance, Meliodas would take the pain with a smile. He has been allowing beatings to last as long as he can stretch them whenever violence arose in his life. The boy views himself as a whipping post, and after each bout, his guilt eases for a blissful night where he can sleep.

From exhaustion or true redemption? The thought plagues him but he thinks it's all he can do while this new plan is forming. He believes he should suffer and if anyone disagrees they simply don't know enough about him. Mr. Hawk's short, snout-like nose snorts as he holds up the paper. The teacher inhales once, twice, and holds in a sneeze as he wraps his elbow over his face, the paper cracks loud with the move.

"So you lot are familiar with her? Good, the transition will go easier." This teacher cares about education more than anything, with the exception of food, which Mr. Hawk looks forward to and thinks about almost every fifteen minutes. In spite of Mr. Hawks teacher status, Meliodas likes him, which makes him special as Meliodas does not seem to like anyone. Mr. Hawk gathers himself, rubs his belly and addresses the class again.

"I need a volunteer to take extra notes and guide her through classes when she needs the help. It's a minimally paid position, and since this is her homeroom you lot get first dibs." Mr. Hawk gives a snorting laugh. "Easy money." The man finishes as if dangling a carrot only to find those before him too lazy to reach out and accept the free food.

Meliodas' still black ocean of rage churns. The class is silent, scratching their pencils on papers and looking to their friends with meaningful expressions. The blonde boy sat up in his chair, his brows furrow and he wonders if any of them have grown up at all since childhood? If anyone here has faced themselves with a good hard look to see who they really are!

The round teacher adjusts his belt, coughing uncomfortably. It's at this moment that Meliodas knows what he must do. Her name is on the top of his list. His chest grows tight, his teeth grind as he spies the mocking smiles of his peers as they face one another and a whisper from behind of "the retarded girl from elementary?" reaches his ears.

"I'll do it," Meliodas growls, his voice tense and biting. Mr. Hawk's beady eyes grow wide, his round face going impossibly sallow. If Meliodas thought the looks from the other students at hearing her name had been bad, his perception changes as these new ones are of horror. "Isn't he the one who-" a girl a desk over hisses to the girl farther down their row as a boy in front of him hushes "-but everyone knows he shouldn't be near her." and those whispers open up a swarm of others as the room buzzes with soft tones.

The boy sags, shoulders droop and his chaotic hair, in desperate need of a cut, falls around his skull to obscure his face. He likes to hide when he feels anything more than a scratch at the door of his insides, especially at his past. His eyes well with unshed tears as he knows the truth, he shouldn't. But no one volunteers, others are already talking about her just for being different and he thinks 'this way, for once in my goddamn life, I can protect her. I'll guard her against the same pain I caused.'

His unshed tears dry up with the sound of one laugh that echoes in the room, it is loud over the 'insects' hum "Back at it, Melio? Too juicy a temptation?" Chandler is a bulky boy, dirty blond and he proudly sports a patchy half-mustache, the best the pubescent boy can grow. Where Meliodas is worn, Chandler is crisp and wearing a new letterman jacket over his shoulders in spite of it being warm in the classroom.

Meliodas' shoulders rear up, his hand pushes his hair back from his forehead and the dingy boy wishes with all his being that his look will kill. Meliodas knows feeling so much anger toward Chandler is pointless, a reaction is what the rich boy wants, it's why he tormented Meliodas in elementary school. Meliodas' murderous stare cracks as he sags back into his seat, picking up his pencil again to tap the end on his cut lip. He likes that the rubber thuds cause a tingling ache to jolt down his chin as he inflames the wound.

"Eh, Meliodas." Mr. Hawk interrupts what the boy is thinking, and it is a good thing as the still sea of wrath shook inside more fierce than it has in some time. Meliodas struggles to contain it. His face is set in hard stone, blank but his jaw clenches, his molars hurt from the pressure. Mr. Hawk is inspecting his student this time, he knows what it's like to be an angry teenage and hopes he's doing the right thing as he tells his student, "Just, see me after class, we'll need to get your notes together." The round teacher claps his sausage fingers together, making muffled slaps, getting the students attention to return to their task.

Meliodas' hair cascades down around him as he thinks, 'gather my notes? I need to start taking them, immediately.' and he does, for the rest of class. His notebook pages fill with lecture, a pleasant change to use the paper as it is intended. For her, to make it up to her, he starts to push his plans back until after graduation. The rest of his short life will be dedicated to safeguarding her through high school. The cruelty here from elementary school is not gone, he knows this first hand, it has evolved. 'I'll earn her forgiveness. No matter how hard it gets. No matter what I have to face or fight.'

To Meliodas, a person who preys on the weak, anyone who exploits another for their own gain, they are his enemy. He hates that he himself is his enemy, but as he takes his notes, being extra careful to write what Mr. Hawk emphasizes, Meliodas' resolve grows stronger. If he is required to chip at the scabs of himself to absolve his sins to Elizabeth, he will tear them open and let himself bleed.

He hopes she's cruel to him, he believes he is well deserving of it, and pain from her is what he thinks he needs to fix what he thinks is broken.

When the bell rings and school is over, Mr. Hawk remembers and calls out to Meliodas as he shoves his notebook in his bag slightly more careful than normal. The boy takes his time, lets the last of the students trickle out while laughing together. No one waits for Meliodas, no one likes him enough to even look back but he knows what they chatter about in their groups. Him, and now that Elizabeth is returning, her.

The boy pulls the heavy sack to his back, he is strong, used to carrying all of his valuables on his person wherever he goes. Meliodas doesn't have to walk to the teacher's desk as this English instructor comes to him. Mr. Hawk's round rump sits on the desk in front of Meliodas' assigned seat and the metal legs give a groaning protest. The teacher ignores the sound as he outlines his concerns, directly, as this teacher knows it works best when talking to Meliodas.

Meliodas tenses, expecting a blow and Mr. Hawk sighs. "I'm not deaf, I heard some of those nitwits chatter when I asked for a volunteer so I put two and two together, but I'm asking you-" The hit Meliodas expects, to have to confess what he's done, doesn't come. "-Will you help her?"

The boy is so surprised at the question, his scabbed lip drops with a little smack noise as it separates from his upper lip. Mr. Hawk is not taking his chance from him. A swell of gratitude in Meliodas loosens the tightness squeezing at his throat. "Yeah." The student breaths out in a rushing exhale. "I want to be better."

Although Meliodas did not mean for those words to be spoken out loud, they are what Mr. Hawk needs to hear. The large teacher's nose twitches and itches, but he ignores the pinching sensation behind his beady eyes as he looks into the weary green ones before him. "You already are." Mr. Hawk tells the boy. As Meliodas's words had been exactly right, Mr. Hawk's are exactly wrong.

Meliodas scowls, moving the required steps around the round teacher, hikes his bag up on his back and walks on. "You'll need the paperwork." Mr. Hawk calls out after the boy and his feet stop before the open door, looking out at the chipped blue paint of the lockers along the far wall in the hall. "And a parents signature."

The boy is short for his age, malnutrition is the main culprit, but from his height people underestimate Meliodas. He has the raw strength of a person born into a harsh life, the thought of a fight does not intimidate him anymore and a fight is exactly what comes to mind when Mr. Hawk says 'parents signature'.

"Fine." Meliodas concedes, coming back to collect the papers Mr. Hawk had been given earlier. It lists expectations on the first sheet, the second is recommendations, plus a place for a guardian to sign and he looks it over with a glance before folding it and shoving it in his front jean pocket. "Thanks." He remembers to add as he looks into the brown eyes of one of the only men who has ever taken time for him.

"The school is doing the minimum, I'm trusting you, Meliodas." It's a pass of the baton. From administration to homeroom teacher and now, from Mr. Hawk to this boy. Meliodas nods to him, knowing his teacher is serious and feeling a bit overwhelmed at his words. "You have a week before she starts, be ready." Meliodas turns, leaving with a heavier weight on his shoulders from the knowledge he will see her again.

The halls were clearing, groups chat while making plans together and the lone boy with so much on his mind passes by them. He stops at his locker, using his shoulders to block the view while angling the metal door for privacy. This is one of the only places he could keep things safe. Meliodas pulls a few twenties off his emergency fund cash roll, hoping to buy a signature rather than sacrifice his body for one. He's willing to do either, but he has a preference, wanting his face to be healed before she arrives. Meliodas does not want her to think he's violent.

He remembered she used to be squeamish about blood when she'd been young, when last he knew her. A paper cut of hers dripped once and she had made a squawking noise, had turned white as a sheet, and fainted. He scowls, eyes closing as a memory flashes of a younger, dirtier child with his chaotic hair dumping a jar of red finger paint on her new yellow dress. Meliodas can ever remember the little bunny buttons it had, that her two ponytails had matching bunny clips holding back her bangs. "Blood!" he'd yelled as if screaming would help her understand when she knew the extent of his cruelty... and so much more. Her blue eyes, the part of her he remembers best, had shined with his contemptuous reflection.

Meliodas slams his locker shut, the money joins the paper in his pocket as his tense neck stretches up, his face is angled up to the drab grey drop ceiling of his high school. He wishes with the movement he could physically escape her eyes, in his own memory, the clear open sapphires that bore hope and kindness. Meliodas had hated her for seeing him, he poured his anger in that girl and he saw, in his mind's eyes, the red-stained girl clean up the mess with a smile on her tear stained little face. She'd written the teacher a note, 'it was my fault' and he had thought 'she's an idiot' when her father picked her up, furious that she'd gotten messy when they had somewhere important to be.

'Why did she protect me from the consequences of my own actions?' He thinks, 'if it had been me I would have-' but he stops himself. This is what cuts the good from the bad, Meliodas theorizes, this is why he can not continue on because his automatic response is aggressive and hers is... sweetness. A part of the boy is terrified she will be cruel to him, in spite of his wish for it, because then he will know what he has taken from the world, from her.

If he beat the softness from that innocent child with the wide, knowing, sapphire eyes, his soul would never recover and his sins would never be absolved. To him, irreparably damaging Elizabeth in any way is such an unbearable thought he starts to run. He needs to get away. He dodges around students, bounds for the open double doors and outside, he jumps off the landing, over the stairs and braces to a crouch when he catches himself on the cement. A girl who could have been faceless for all Meliodas cares or notices, yelps as he rushes by, trying to escape himself, his past and the thoughts of chemically induced oblivion. 'Face it!' He demands of himself but his legs pump harder in resistance of his own will.

Meliodas knows this city. Knows the back alleys, the short cuts, and the areas to avoid to keep the memories at bay. Today, he does not have anywhere to be until five and he crosses a street with quick steps when the light changes in his favor. The city is dirty the further in you go, but he goes with a destination in mind. Public School 1909 is from a subset of the city and although the education is supposedly better than other schools in the area, Meliodas has under two years of educational experience outside of this place for comparison. He finds it lacking.

'If this is how 1909 handles Elizabeth, passing the 'problem' to her classmates just like in elementary school. They are setting her up for a repeat of the same issues.' His disdain for the system starts to reach levels on par with Mr. Hawk. The thought helps Meliodas, gives him a rope to climb to repeat his mantras and find solid ground. 'See, it passes. She needs you now, you must be reliable.' The boy thinks as he turns a street corner, avoiding a homeless man's outstretching cup and a stinking food cart. He does not like to run, does not like the pressure that builds in his lungs or the over taut feeling of his calves but he finds himself running often.

The building he approaches looms, more polished than the others around it, but the homeless circle the place like vultures. The bricks of the building are deteriorating, tan cracks and chips, but holding strong. The few stories have grand windows with not a single pane of glass broken. Meliodas is not surprised, as it is a building where anyone could come for help; delinquents do not throw rocks where they were welcome. The rows of steps are daunting after his run so he jogs up the accessibility ramp as it is clear of people. He looks to make sure no one in a wheelchair is approaching.

Meliodas opens the door with a flourish, the glass smeared with fingerprints and he avoids touching it for long as he dips into the place. The fluorescent lights shine, illuminating the bodies at the public computers, the empty chairs and rows and rows of books. Meliodas looks over the faces, not seeing anyone he recognizes and sighs in relief. He's been here enough to know where to go and he gives a small wave to the librarian as he heads to the stairs, taking them two at a time and pulling himself forward with heaves at the railing.

Down a few shelves, past a few empty tables and around a homeless man sleeping, Meliodas finds what he's looking for. He picks up two books, a vocabulary index with nice hand illustrations and an introductory how-to. The white clock on the wall shows him he has time to spare but he does not want to linger here without a safety net. With the books under his arm, he returns to the front desk and the kind wrinkled librarian adjusts her glasses from their resting place amid her white tight curls to rest on her nose as she takes his library card and scans the books. "Again, dear?" She asks, her voice rough from years of smoking but he likes the sound of it.

The boy nods, returning her kind smile.

She reaches under her desk and places a travel sized bag of crisps on top of his selections. Meliodas does not argue, taking the offering with a smile as he pulls his backpack off to arrange the new additions among his tattered second-hand textbooks. With a pleasant parting and a thrown over his shoulder "thanks", he leaves the library.

The city is coming alive as the day wears on. Men only a year or two older than Meliodas with dark hoods up and hands in their front pockets look around shiftily. He knew the signs of a person looking to score, the main indicator is overhead hanging electrical wires with shoes dangling from wrapped laces. If this Meliodas were the old one, he'd join the boy in his walk to see who supplies him, scout another source but now he pops open his crisps and takes a meandering stroll toward work.

He will be early, but he wants to get his school work done in peace in the break room and his coworkers always let him dip into the expired food since their manager marks it as a loss before tossing it. Meliodas finishes his crisps, crinkles the foil and pockets it until he passes a trash can.

When he reaches the Grocery-Mart, he ducks in, waves to the sole women checking a customer out and she gives him a smile in greeting. Since he sees it needs to be done, he straightens the carts before he heads to the bathrooms. When Meliodas emerges he had his work polo on with his magnetic badge clipped over his heart. He stocks shelves mainly but fills in whenever there is a gap.

With his backpack, Meliodas enters the breakroom, the pushcart of expired food is full and free to take from so he hits that up first. A person can survive off dried goods and old bread, he knows this for sure. He sits in his usual plastic chair beside the fridge that hums too loud in the little room. Meliodas sheds his backpack and pulls the backlog of homework out of his folder that he should have finished already. He's a clever kid, his grades are slightly above average but with his pending suicide, he had no reason to do this work- or care. Now that he had Elizabeth to think about, he wants his work graded and returned before she arrives so he knows where he struggles to better help her in case she needs it.

He starts his shift on time, stocking and moving displays. Meliodas covers as a cashier for bathroom visits and breaks without any complaints. He assists customers looking for something specific and he returns abandoned items to their proper place. The back room is storage and large shipments that need unpacked and most of his work there is done. The area is clear for deliveries.

When Meliodas' shift is over, he goes to his work cubby and pulls out an outfit. He had enough dirty clothes for a load and bags the lot of it. He clocks out while his manager gives him a stressed 'thank you, god knows I'd drown without you'. On his way home, Meliodas stops at the coin-laundry on the same block as the Grocery-Mart.

The place is dusty in the corners but the folding table is usually clean. A mother is wrestling with a machine far too full to get a good wash while her three kids run around between the units. Meliodas finds an empty top loader, one far from her lot and meticulously checks his clothing pockets before arranging the articles inside. Once the bag from his cubby is empty he opens his backpack to pull free the rest of his clothes. He looks over to the kids climbing up on the folding table as their mother smacks at their ankles with a twisted towel and decides against stripping to his boxers to wash his pants.

He has two other pairs of pants he can alternate between, he thinks as he situates himself on top of his chosen washer. Carefully, Meliodas pulls only the folded paper free of his jeans pocket, his money is still tucked there safely. With a heavy heart, the boy reads the paper carefully. It seems so reasonable to him and he wonders why it had been so hard for him and the other kids of their elementary class? After Meliodas thinks about it, he decides it must be patience. No one back then had wanted to slow down and when she insisted she hadn't realized she had been upsetting everyone. The entire class had turned against her. Meliodas had been the target of the bullies before she had come along to take his place and he hates how he had joined his tormentors when he had known what it felt like to be on the other end.

When the washer stops, Meliodas moves the load to a dryer, going to the coin machine to trade in a dollar. When he starts the dryer he pulls out his library book, sitting in front of this one as the dryers are stacked double up because they front-loaded. The mother and her three loud children leave, the door jingling and for one blissful moment he is alone with the vibrations of the drying at his back. Then the jingle sounds and a big burly man in a purple tank top comes in, his chest hair dark and curly with his beard the same.

Meliodas doesn't mind, he believes he does not deserve nice, peaceful moments. His nose returns to his book and he practices to himself while he waits. A few others come in and the boy's spine straightens as an obvious deal goes down, a shaky man with a fisherman's hat gives the burly man a palm of cash and the burly man gives the man something in return. The buyer tucks his purchase into his inside jacket pocket before leaving.

With a pocket full of cash, he is tempted.

Meliodas arranges his backpack, returning his books and papers he had been working on. Then, he opens the bag he had grabbed from the Grocery-Mart and stops the dryer with a few more minutes left on the timer. The boy does not bother with folding. he scoops and shoves his load into the bag before cleaning out his lint from the collection trap. It's dark, the sun long gone but it does not worry Meliodas, he prefers to move in the night regardless of the dangers. He is familiar with it, an old friend that keeps him safe when he needs to hide, and with it blanketing the world Meliodas feels more in control.

At night, the other side of the city is awake. Dark figures running in the alleys, screams in the distance and sirens blare. Meliodas pushes into a trot, heading toward his sublet of the city. His house comes into view when he leaves the industrial district. The chain link fence is busted and sags in the front from the bent support beams.

He hops over the useless metal and dashes across the overgrown grass to creak up the lopsided steps. It's a two story, each window had discolored blankets over the glass to keep peering eyes and any hint of sun out. The siding is missing in some places, cracked and hanging off. Meliodas' mother had inherited the home from her grandfather and has not kept up with any repair or updated anything to code in spite of the warning fines. Her son, Meliodas, knows this but he does not bother with her problems often. He tried, when he'd been younger, at twelve he knew how to rewire electricity and fix leaking roofs but at seventeen he refuses to do a thing for his mother.

He knows where her money goes, he knows her priorities and up until twelve hours ago, he had planned to be gone by the end of the month. Now, he would see Elizabeth through high school and for a fleeting moment Meliodas considers fixing the sagging stairs for the cranky bat he called mother. It depends on how hard it is to get her signature.

Meliodas unlocks the door, tucking his key away as he pulls the wooden door up to slowly push the thing open wide enough to slip through without noise. His efforts are wasted as he knows his father isn't home as soon as he enters the small room, if he were, his mother would not be passed out on the sagging plaid couch as she is. He'd have dragged her ass to the bedroom.

The carpet is threadbare with various stains and cigarette burns but a rug covers most of it, the dark swirling design gives Meliodas a headache when he stares at it but he does admit it is an improvement to what is underneath. The coffee table is strewn with cups, dirty plates and ash trays full of butts and bits of trash. Most of the floor is clear but a stray soiled towel and water bottles are simply part of the decor as Meliodas does not notice them anymore. As if they are decorations so often a part of the scene the brain doesn't register it.

Before he loses his nerve, he climbs the stairs to stash his stuff in his cramped room. His mattress is on the floor, his sheets and blankets twisted up on it. An old alarm clock with block red letters sits on the floor plugged into the wall, its short twisting cord reaches the far wall with ease. The plain fake-wood grain dresser along the wall is missing a drawer from the last fist fight, having cracked the face of it with a stray elbow.

He didn't have clutter as the tiny room does not contain anything else. All of his possessions he keeps in his backpack. Meliodas tosses the bag of clean clothes toward his dresser before sitting the backpack beside his mattress with far more care. The boy pulls the signature requiring paper-free, collecting a pen from his bag and makes sure it works before returning to the living room to try to rouse her. Meliodas knows his mother gets frustrated easily.

"Mom." He says and she pushes at his hand to stop him from shaking her shoulder. Meliodas attempts again, digging in his pocket to pull out and separate his bills, tucking one into his worn shoe, another behind his ear separating them into hiding places on his person.

"Fuck off." Her rough voice mutters, "Lay me out, but let me sleep." She actually parts her legs and Meliodas scowls, pushing rougher on her shoulder before her hazel eyes open and narrow on his face. Instantly, her hands flail to slap and Meliodas accepts a solid hit, hoping to put her in a better mood with the sound of skin-hitting-skin in the air.

"I need you to sign this for school." Meliodas tells her, keeping the paper out of her reach but showing her the line meant for her name. His mother's hair is unwashed, stringy with grease as her hand rubs at the bags under her eyes. Her makeup is smeared but she looked a little less sullen today. 'She must have found something to eat.' His mother groans as she adjusts to sit, clearing her throat with a deep hack as if she were about to spit a loogie.

"Whats'it for?" His mother mutters and Meliodas does not go into detail, simply that Mr. Hawk, his English teacher, needs help with something that requires permission. "Whatdo'I get?" His mother feigns looking for her box of cigarettes and when she thinks her son is focused elsewhere she attempts a snatch at the paper. Meliodas easily moves it out of reach.

"I'll fix the steps." He offers and her mother scoffs, actually trying to find the pack now. "I'll reframe your window to seal the breeze gap." Her answering hiss is low but she finds her pack, flipping it open to remove a stick and a lighter. In a moment she's exhaling putrid smoke, but Meliodas has breathed this since he's been a newborn and the smell didn't bother him. "Just name it already."

"I want hot water." His mother complains.

"A tank costs more than I have." Meliodas is intentional in his phrasing. She catches his fishing hook as her glinting eyes swivel to his face and narrow. "We're both stuck with cold showers until you rack up the dough, you know I'll install it. I hate the three minutes I'm in there too."

"More'an you have? How much'ya have?" She insists and Meliodas holds the pen out to her, shaking the paper he needs to be signed. His mother takes the pen, he has her halfway to agreeing and he starts arranging the clutter on the coffee table to free space for the paper. "You owe'it a'me." His mother insists and Meliodas nods. He did, her name is on his list. He takes the end of his shirt and rubs at the wood tabletop he cleans before setting the page down.

He pulls the bill from behind his ear and tosses it to her, she's pleased with the twenty. "You stealin'again?" She asks and he shrugs. "Good." His mother leans toward the sheet, a looping 'M' is written on the line but as she stops, so does Meliodas lungs as his breath catches. Almost. He pulls another from his shoe, less willing to part with it. Her fingers pinch at the bill tugging it free and she adds two more letters of her name before sitting back. "I wanna cut'of what you sell." She insists.

"I don't sell." Meliodas tells her, it's the truth and her eyes narrow. "My supplier ran dry." This isn't the truth but the answer is easier to swallow. Her full first name is there and when she pauses he adds "When I do, I'll cut you in." and it buys him a few more letters of her last name. He skips the bullshit and crumples up another bill and tosses it into her lap, feigning ire to give her the satisfaction of prying the most from him. Her wicked smile twists in the dark as she finishes her name but she's too quick for him, her hands on the page already and she pulls it from the table to hold it between her fingers.

"You think Imma idiot." His mother complains with a fake pout, if she were trying to act pretty her eyelashes would have batted but with her son she plays to different sympathies. Meliodas pulls another bill from his front pocket, gripped between his thumb and pointer knuckle. His mother mirrors the position with the sheet and like yin and yang the two grip the others offered paper. For a moment, neither let go, eyes challenging but the tension eases and in the end, they each get what they want.

"Thanks, Mom." Meliodas murmurs, trying to be polite but his mother doesn't reply, gathering up her bills with glee. That will get her through the next week if she didn't use more than twice a day. He is no longer sure how often it is as he isn't around and she hides her stuff, fearing him taking it unnecessarily or his father using it for himself as he did when it is left out.

He climbs the steps, the paper with his mother's name folded back up. At the top of the stairs, he collects the few bills he had left to add the papers to his backpack. In his room, he locks his door, hoping the little latch will give him a few seconds to escape if he needs it. He has jumped from his window before and as long as he lands nicely he will be okay. The front zipper of the smaller front pocket of his bag didn't work anymore, so his money and permission slip is tucked inside the main pouch pocket where the zipper did work.

Meliodas would not risk his cash or his chance at redemption with Elizabeth.

He sets his alarm, changes into some clean clothes and repacks his work shirt into his backpack before dumping his clothing into the remaining drawers. He semi-sorts it, but in the end, it's just a mass of loose wrinkled clothing. With his backpack angled for an easy grab, he lays on his mattress and loops the blankets around himself, arms stretch over his head as he thinks of the last time he saw Elizabeth.

She'd been crying. Her eyes were like pools they were so clear and he remembers how beautiful they were. 'It's a shame they only sparkled so much from her sorrow'. He thinks as he forces his eyes closed to welcome sleep. It doesn't come, Elizabeth's swirling child eyes leak round tears as she moves her hands to him, trying to tell him something. He'd taken something of hers, her notepad, the papers had been shaped like an ice cream cone... Why had he done it?

Meliodas smacks at his own face, busting open the scab on his lip, and he sucks on the blood as he angrily flops to his stomach. He whispers into the dark, "I'll protect her this time. If it cost me my useless life, I'll give it." Because the boy knows the pain he's caused. He spread his misery, but now that he's looking at himself, now that he sees who he truly is, the boy does not want to go back to who he used to be. He has finally been shown better, he wants to be better, so he will try.

He will face his list, he will confess his crimes and his forgiveness will be in the hands of those he's wronged. 'Fitting', he thinks as the thoughts help calm him into a semi-peaceful rest.

X X X

Days pass. The boy does his work, he takes notes and tries his hand at organization. Mr. Hawk accepts his permission form and the waiting is brutal for Meliodas. Like watching a slow-motion car crash but he does not feel like a driver, he feels as if he is standing between the two cars about to impact around him. Over the course of the days, his sleep is restless, his nails were bitten to the quick and his leg bounces worse than ever.

'What if she runs?' He worries while stacking boxes of cereal at Grocery-Mart.

Days later he worries 'What if she's forgotten me entirely? Would that be good or bad?' while avoiding his father by sleeping over at his brother's place for a night.

The day before she arrives Meliodas can only manage small bites of food or his stomach turns. He returns the library books, glad at least that his face and knuckles were unmarred. His mind plays cruel tricks of replaying memories. He remembers cutting her hair off at the back of her head and tossing the white tresses like confetti into the air, of kicking a ball into the side of her head and of ripping her hearing aids out. He cannot remember what he had done to them after he had them but the sick in his stomach finally erupts at the thought and he upchucks on his floor in the middle of the night. It is mostly white stomach bile but he cleans it, not bothering to be quiet as the music below and loud yells muffle any sounds he makes.

.X X X.

Monday morning, it's silent in the house and he brings his packed bag in the bathroom with him. The toilet is off color but it flushes properly while the sink is cracked down the center and when the knobs twist even a little it drips until the ceiling leaks downstairs. The bathroom is small, the walls are partially tiled but through the years of neglect the blue things have cracked or fallen off leaving the sticky yellow glue stains behind. He takes extra care with himself today.

Downstairs, the boy does not linger in his looks over the naked man on the couch, nor the slew of paraphernalia around. His mother had been too messed up to hide it before she passed out and briefly Meliodas hopes his father does not come home or he'll hurt her. He steps over a few empty bottles, holding his breath as he creeps to the door and slips out into the cold morning air without waking anyone.

He makes good time, walking through a few yards to shorten his distance to PS1909. Meliodas pep talks himself, his worries flitting across his mind in a rush of too many thoughts and his brows crinkle together. His expression is almost as tense as his shoulders which is where he carries his stress. Meliodas hopes to be early, he is to meet her before their first block in the guidance office to explain the four by four block class structure.

Meliodas has practiced what to say but before he tries to explain that, he has so much to apologize for. The graying building comes into view, he hikes up his backpack approaching the front of the dark entranceway. The inner doors will be locked until the office administrators open it but he plans on using the time wisely while waiting. He's early but as he approaches he sees movement inside the first set of doors, pulling at the inner ones.

The boy takes the stairs two at a time, yelling up "They open them at Seven-Thirty," when he reaches the outer doors and pulls, he calls out again "Hey!" He enters the breezeway, looking to the girl with an interest, a rush of desire, he has not felt in himself before and all he gazes at are her legs for a stilled heartbeat. She's lithe in arm and leg but curvy in the rear, so much so that her pants stretch over her round rump nearly skin tight. Her backpack, above her ass, is light blue with dangling mini permanent markers clipped to the hand handle at the top and they clang together as she pulls at the door with a frustrated shake.

"Yo, did you hear me?" Meliodas asks, finally pulling his eyes from her rump. He notes her backpack charms, eyes climbing to see her hair, glowing like moonlight in its paleness and his heart stops. His palm comes up with quick speed as he slams a solid palm hit to his own forward. 'Of course she can't hear you!' he scoffs to himself.

The girl sees movement in the reflection of the glass in the top of the inner doors and she jolts, spinning on her flats over the lino floor. She doesn't make a sound but her dangles on her backpack do. The girl knows this boy, she looks over his messy blonde hair, red mark on his forehead and over the grown face of the little boy she used to spend all her time with. Her hands shake, raising up to hover just over her mouth as she bites her lip, her stomach fluttering with an eruption of butterflies she fears are going to escape from her mouth like a blown dandelion-puff.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas whispers, the name escaping him like prayer as the sight of her face stops his heart. 'She's... stunning' he thinks, noting her round chest from the edges of his vision but resists the urges to drink in her coke-bottle body. Her eyes caught his, the blue deep in their swirling emotions and what he sees confirms one of his worries. 'She's afraid of me.' He does not blame her.

At this moment, they both remember something about the other.

Elizabeth remembers the first time she met Meliodas, many years ago. She can see the small rough-faced boy in the eyes of her mind sitting alone during lunch, a brown sack bag in front of him, rolled shut. She had hoped at the time he would talk with her since he didn't have anyone else to talk to either. When she sat, the boys green weary eyes met hers in shock and when she put her bright character themed lunchbox on the table between them unzipping it, the table moved with a jolt, getting her attention. When she looked up again, he'd been walking away. And he had forgotten his lunch. She picked it up, to return it to him, to chase him down but it was light, too light. Elizabeth remembered opening it, seeing crinkled plastic grocery bags stuffed in the bottom of it and of following after him with her own lunch box in tow.

Meliodas though, he sees that blue orb earring in her ear. When she had been a child, there had been two and she still wears the remaining one. Meliodas wonders 'why' as he remembers how he had taken her hearing aid, it caught on her earring and both had come loose in his hand. The teacher had forced him to return the hearing aid, which he did, but Elizabeth sobbed, the sound of it warbled through her nose as she moved her hands frantically to the teacher. "He gave it back, Elizabeth." The teacher dismissed her, not understanding he stole her jewelry and her round blue eyes pinned to his pleadingly but the child Meliodas had dangled the earring before her in mocking glee. The fear in her eyes then, it's so similar to her eyes now Meliodas would have sworn this full-grown Elizabeth morphs into her nine-year-old self again.

Slowly, Meliodas raises his hands. He points to his chest, forms a fist and places it over his heart to move it in a circle clockwise. "I'm sorry" he conveys using sign language. The girl's eyes grow wide, filling with tears, her hands still in their shaking but her reaction is not what Meliodas wants. He never wants to make her cry again. If he can prevent her from ever shedding another, he will.

"You learned sign language?" She asks with her gestures and Meliodas breathes a sigh in relief that he understands her, finally.

This question is one of the first sign-phrases in the 'ASL for Beginners' book he borrows from the library every few weeks. With a flourish, he raises his hand to show his thumb and pointer finger separated by an inch of space to indicate "a little" before he does the "learning" sign. Meliodas has a long way to be a master at the language but at his answer, Elizabeth's tears fall. They are plump as they slip down her pink apple cheeks and across her tiny pointed chin before falling to plop on the floor at her little feet.

"Please don't cry." He says out loud before signing it, repeating his "I'm sorry" sign and beginning his prepared signs, his speech, of "Before, in elementary, I treated you bad-bad and I want to be a friend, real friends, If I can earn your forgiveness I want to-". The girl steps to him, her hands reach out to him and he freezes as she falls into him, her wet cheek glides across his dry one. He marvels at her smooth skin, like a silk caress, a gentle touch, and the boy is not used to those.

Meliodas is stunned, so much so he does nothing. His hands are still raised on either side of her thin waist in the middle of his sign. Her hands wrap around his shoulders, her fingers touching his black pack on his back as her chest heaves against his with her silent cries. A deep piece of Meliodas, one cracked and askew, slips back in its proper place. He breathes her in, smelling the sweet scent of her hair as it tickles his nose. Her breasts are soft pillows pressed between them and he loathes that his body reacts to hers with such a simple touch, thinking he doesn't deserve the pleasure from her. The boy moves his face into her tresses and with his shift, she steps away.

The boy is confused. He never dreamed she would ever want to touch him, let alone hug him when she has not watched his full 'signed' confession. Meliodas had wanted her wrath as he is more comfortable with a version of this playing out where she transfers her pain to him through aggression. Instead, he gets a new pain, an ache in his chest that threatens to crack open his ribs from the inside.

'This torture better suits my crimes.'

Her hands move in a fast succession of motions, points, and hand shapes. The boy watches, blankly, her speed too much for him to understand more than a word here and there. Her face tells him more than her hands, and he watches her brows furrow, her mouth forms a circle, her little white teeth bite the pink plumpness before her little tongue darts out, wetting her lips. 'Why does she have to look like this?' He thinks with desperation.

For Meliodas her form is perfection. From her round hips, graceful wrists and of course her ample bosom. He appreciates it all with a longing that borders hopelessness. He truly tries to catch her meanings, her little fist slams into her other palm before her fingers splay out and she points to her own finger telling him something he didn't understand. Meliodas raises his arm and runs his fingers up from his wrist to his elbow "slow" he signs and her cheeks pinken. Meliodas remembers then that she flushed as a kid too. Her hands pause and he stares past them to her chest. Two plump swells of creamy flesh poke just so from the swoop-neck of her shirt, modestly covered with an undershirt of holey lace.

Her hands move again, slower and he knows she's angry about something. Elizabeth's eyes are narrowed and her nose crinkles cutely before her head shakes, her hair dances around her heart-shaped face. Then she signs "I'm sorry" and he waves it away, shaking his head no with a firm purse of his lips.

Elizabeth smiles, hands falling to her side as she looks over the boy who has grown into a man, in her eyes. The fact that he learned sign language without knowing if they will ever meet again, it warms her somber heart. She watches him twist around, his red shirt lifts and she spots a strip of his toned midsection, a pale scar catching her eye on his hip bone that dipped into his jeans.

The boy gathered his backpack from behind, unzipping the top and rummaging around. Other students start to arrive, some sitting on the steps outside the entrance and others finding their meeting places to wait for their friends. Meliodas looks out as steps approach and Elizabeth mirrors him, knowing he must have heard something she obviously can't. The girl looks out at the few others in the front quad, a bus stops out front, idling in the street with fog rolling off it from the morning cold and with her attention to the outside, Meliodas touches her arm with his.

Elizabeth looks to him, sees the outstretched paper and accepts it, reading it over. She understands instantly that he volunteered as her class aide. The girl bites her lip again, worrying that she would be a burden to him.

Her brow furrows in contemplation as she hands it back, signing slowly "Why? I don't think you can help me." Meliodas nods, thinking he understands what she means but he doesn't.

"I'll protect you." He signs, chest swelling with foolish discomfort and a lot of weary, tentative hope. "I will do it right. To make up for before." And this time, Elizabeth thinks she understands, but she doesn't.

Elizabeth meant she is beyond help, too broken to be repaired while Meliodas dismisses her words as self-empowering. And she took his words to mean she is a burden and he only took the job as a pairing to his apology, when he is really talking about their friendship. Meliodas wants to be a real friend to her, as he believes if he would have taken his head out of his own ass back then, the two of them would be... different with one another.

Deep regret splinters in Meliodas as he knows what he wants with Elizabeth, he already broke. He's known it for years and seeing her in all her grown glory simply drives the nail in his upcoming coffin a bit further.

"I've loved you from the day you shared your peanut butter and jelly sandwich with me in the third grade and every single day after. I did not have the emotional maturity to handle the complexity that came with you." He speaks, knowing she cannot hear a word of it, her face tilts and her smile is one of soft confusion. Elizabeth can read lips but with Meliodas' rush of words, his lips moving too fast paired with the fact she is not familiar with him yet, she doesn't understand him. "Not the hearing, that's whatever, but the complex feelings you forced into me back then. I hadn't appreciated them, I had resented them and with them, you. Now, to make up for my sins, I've decided to die. I want to-"

The door opens, the brown tight curls of the office lady bob as she kicks at the little door stopper to keep the inner doors propped open. Metal detectors were on and buzzing just beyond, a guard sitting in his chair unconcerned as he ties his shoe with a large yawn. It's then that the bus doors open and a line of children span across the quad toward the front doors. Meliodas flushes hot as Elizabeth signs "Can you say it again?" and then "can you sign it?"

When he doesn't move she reaches behind her back, pulling a marker from her dangling clip at the top of her pack. From the pocket meant for a water bottle she pulls a thin notepad with a dull rainbow printed on it, she offers them both to him. She wants him to write it, but the outer doors burst open, a stream of bodies bumping and if she could hear, the noise in the little entryway would be deafening.

The moment is lost and Meliodas rubs at the back of his neck as he joins the herd with her, adjusting his backpack and refolding the aid paper to shove in his pocket. 'I'm such an idiot' Meliodas thinks 'that's not the confession she entitled to! For someone like me to even want her, someone so far out of my league we aren't playing the same game... it's grounds for another sin to be tallied against me.'


	2. Envy

A/N: Same warnings apply. Thank you Lickitysplit for the wonderful drawing you did for this piece! I love it and adore you!

Chapter Two: Envy

Meliodas and Elizabeth fell into a pattern over the next few days. They both arrive early at PS1909 and meet in the entrance way, stop at each other's lockers to flip books around before heading to their first class. He shares his notes with her, writes the answer to any question she passes his way and he endures the gossip behind her back where some thought it funny they didn't have to be quiet about it. After the first round of classes together, Meliodas is intelligent enough to pick up on when Elizabeth needs him to write what the teacher is saying.

Her wristwatch glows and vibrates to indicate school bells. While following prompts and when the teacher faces the class, she doesn't need his help at all. Meliodas is fine-tuned to her frustrated little sighs when the teacher faces the board. She can't read their lips when they turn away, but mostly, Elizabeth only needs him to confirm things she already knows.

Meliodas is glad she is so independent but on the third day of him feeling like he is as useful as a glob of gum stuck on her shoe, he looks over his list of names and wonders how he is going to make it up to her if she doesn't need him. His attempts to sign are slow and jilted. She always kindly helps him so when the moment arises for him to be there for her, he's determined to be ready.

During their second morning class, Meliodas and Elizabeth are sitting beside one another at a black top table they share, their backpacks touching between their chairs. He's watching her but she doesn't notice his eyes following the curve of her wrist or the sunlight trickle in through the window to illuminate her locks. She tucks her hair behind her ear and her single earring sparkles in the light, blue refracting points dance on the desk and around her like fireflies.

Another girl with brown bouncing hair in two ponytails on either side of her head is finishing up passing out the worksheet in their Psychology class when she stops at their table. She's a pretty girl, giantly tall, athletic with cute freckles and brown eyes shining deep in empathy. Meliodas and Elizabeth both know this is Diane, a girl they both went to elementary school with. She taps the table in front of Elizabeth. Her blue eyes rise, having felt the table resonate and she follows the girl's curvy body up until they meet gazes.

"You can speak now?" The girl standing before their table asks. Meliodas sighs while wondering if she's the spokesperson for her group of bitchy friends. He assumes Diane will go back to Guila and Jericho with a giggle on her cruelly twisted lips. Elizabeth just smiles and nods sweetly. For some reason, the smooth slope of Elizabeth's nose grabs his attention and he has a hard time looking away from her to focus again on Diane. "Good, maybe we can talk sometime? I uh, can I see your notepad?"

Elizabeth dips to get her rainbow printed pad from the side pocket of her backpack and in her bend, her shirt rises up her back just enough for Meliodas' eyes to feast on her creamy flesh for a glorious breath. Diane accepts it, writes something on it and gives it back to Elizabeth with a sad smile. "I've been building up my nerve to approach you." Diane confesses and Elizabeth's expression softens. "I'm sorry, I was a coward as a kid, refusing to fight when you needed someone too... I was... envious of you." The brown eyes of the girl are deep in remembrance as they shift to Meliodas. Diane smiles at him, sadly before nodding her head forward to him, then her as a goodbye, and going back to her table having left behind their handout.

Meliodas watches her walk up the aisle, he waits for Diane to turn around in her chair to whisper to the pair of girls behind her, to Guila and Jericho. The two girls are impatient, the black-haired Guila pokes the blunt end of a pencil into Diane's side as if demanding her to spill what she'd done, but Diane slaps it away softly, telling them something before turning back to her work with a reddish haired boy at her side, looking at her. Jericho scowls to Guila who shrugs, before looking over her shoulder to Elizabeth with a raised brow.

The boy's attention shifts to Elizabeth too. She has her phone out, programming a new number in. His heart stills, wanting to ask for her number. 'It would be easier to talk then, that's all, that's why.' He thinks to himself but the moment passes as Elizabeth puts her phone away, tears the note Diane wrote off and folds it up to put in her pocket. They work through their worksheet and her colorful mechanical pencil taps on his paper. He loves when he gets to look her directly in the eyes and he exhales silently in anticipation of her sapphires burning into him.

Meliodas notices a slight sadness in the edge lines of her face but she smiles and her eyes crinkle prettily.

She signs, "can I look in your notebook? In your backpack? I want to review yesterday's class, Mr. Helbram is too excitable. It's hard to read his lips constantly." Meliodas looks over at Mr. Helbram, he's bent over a students shoulder pointing to their paper and speaking low. The man is smaller than most of the people in this classroom but the Psychology teacher loves his job. His usual jumping and emphasizing is entertaining but Meliodas understands why Elizabeth would get lost easily as Mr. Helbram does not face the class all that often while talking.

"Anytime" Meliodas signs back, thinking this is the moment where he can finally be useful. Through Mr. Helbram's active movements, he finds something he can do for her. "If you need something, you can just take it. My backpack is your backpack." He finishes with a smile and she laughs, a breathy exhale of mirth. Meliodas marvels at the sound, it's the first 'noise' she's made and her little hands comes up to cover her mouth in embarrassment. "No," He signs, "your laugh is cute, it's soft."

Elizabeth flushes, nods and bends to open his backpack while he leans back to see that line of flesh at her side and back that pokes when she bends this way. She reads his Psychology notes while he finishes up his worksheet, comparing answers.

"You have this one different, am I wrong?" He asks and Elizabeth researches the answer, flipping through her textbook until she finds what she needs. Meliodas signs, "You always know what's going on, you don't need me at all." as he thinks she might have asked for his notes just to make him feel better.

"Teachers are just reading a book to you. I have the book, so I read it myself before. It helps me to know the topic beforehand." Elizabeth signs back, giving him his cheap spiral notebook back with a smile. When he takes it she signs "You take really nice notes, I like to read them more than the textbook." The flattery is next to nothing but Meliodas gives a shaky smile, overwhelmed at the emotions that flow through his veins, pumped stronger through his heart's rapid beats. 'She likes my notes.'

At lunch, he eats some of the dried goods he had taken from the expired cart at Grocery-mart with Elizabeth sitting across from him at an otherwise empty rectangle table. Meliodas is working up the nerve to confess all the wrong he's ever done to her, writing a list of the topics he wants to cover with her. He's never been a coward, and to prove it to himself he turns, touching her arm to get her attention. She looks up from her phone, a sole grape in her hand froze on its way to her plump lips.

"Can I have your phone number?" He asks, pulling out his own phone. It is an old one of his elder brothers. When Zeldris upgraded he passed this one down to Meliodas, putting him on the plan for twenty bucks a month. Something Meliodas could swing rather easily. The glass front had a crack in the upper right corner but it barely hindered Meliodas. Elizabeth smiles, she holds her palm out and he puts his phone there, the tips of his fingers touching her smooth flesh which sends his heart to race so fast he feel as if there are seven of them beating away inside his torso.

Elizabeth adds herself to his contacts and she cannot help but notice how few contacts he has. 'Mom, Gelda, Zeldris, Grocery-Mart, E, and DO NOT ANSWER' He did not have many people and a few listed perk Elizabeth's curiosity but she does not ask. She hands it back miming him texting her and the boy does, sending a simple 'yo' that vibrates her phone on the table. Where his phone is naked black hers is colorful with a sturdy bright case. Meliodas watches her smile, he stares at the side of her face as she types in 'Melio' after selecting save contact. He catches what she's typed and frowns, poking his finger on her screen to finish spelling his name.

He can't meet her eyes for the rest of lunch. Elizabeth wonders if she has done something wrong, 'I always seem to mess up' she thinks. The girl picks at her food, wondering if she should text a 'hi' back but ends up not, thinking it would be stupid since they are next to one another. Meliodas though, wonders if he can ever truly escape the little boy, the 'Melio' he used to be, or if she will always think of him as that cruel, vindictive child that tried to punish her for his own feelings, for trying to beat her out of him.

The day goes on.

They have gym today since it's Wednesday, Tuesday and Thursday is Home Ec. and the boy and girl separate to different locker rooms. It is the only time they are apart while school is in session. Elizabeth wears a tight smile before she goes into the girl's locker room and Meliodas worries what happens behind those doors, with good reason.

He avoids thinking about her smooth little body stretching her shirt up over her waist, her breasts and her hair tumbling out, her back arching with the movement to free herself of her top. And he definitely avoids thinking about her bending over in her white lace panties, of which he knows she is wearing as he caught a hint of the waistband earlier. Meliodas rushes through changing into his blue and white windbreaker outfit, hiding his throbbing reaction.

The class runs laps and although Meliodas could run circles around the lot of them, he keeps pace with Elizabeth who is a solid front but not first type. Her endurance surprises Meliodas. Mr. Twigo, his old coach, hollers at him to 'put some effort in, I know you can do better' but he ignores him happily knowing Elizabeth can't hear a word of Twigo's aggressive, red-faced rants at the pair.

The two end the day with English taught by Mr. Hawk. For Meliodas, in spite of Chandler being here, this is where he winds down. He feels like his day is waiting for the other shoe to drop, for one of the whisperers to go beyond talk and physically assault her. For him it feels the same as if his father is home and he's trying to sneak past him only the stakes this time are Elizabeth, which amps his alertness and makes him tired when the days through.

"It's free write," Mr. Hawk says "As long as your utensil is scratching at paper, I don't care what you write. If I find you doodling I'm assigning you work," and Meliodas knows what he needs to do. His confession, of all his sins to Elizabeth, he puts it in a letter. He hates the first draft, scrapping the thing and trying again.

Meliodas can't help looking to her every few moments and it reminds him of their 3rd-grade classroom setup, four desks pushed into a square, each assigned a color. They had been the red-square. She used to face him and looking at her had been easier then, his eyes always seem to find her, that had not changed over the years.

Elizabeth is writing softly in a little book. She looks up, sees him looking and smiles brightly but he notes it doesn't quite reach the ocean depths inside her eyes. Meliodas thinks he's seeing the manifestation of his actions with that blip of sorrow, he believes there is no way to make up for doing so much damage that she transferred to another school to escape him but he wants to try. 'I've dulled her shine and that alone should be punishable by death.'

The next letter he writes takes him the rest of class and beyond. After she leaves, walking home, he sits on the bench outside with the notepad on his knee and he continues it still when he is in the break room of the Grocery-mart. When he finishes, he doesn't hate it, but in his little bedroom, he writes it over again by moonlight, carefully so his handwriting isn't angling or rushed, but of deliberate letters and corrected mistakes.

His father comes home, he can hear the commotion. With a call to his brother, he has a place to stay and he heads to the shop silently leaving. On the walk, he reads over the letter again. He doubts whether or not it is a good idea to mention what he did to her earring, the reminder will hurt her and he loathes the thought but he knows that's the moment she had stopped reaching out to him.

It had taken two years of him tormenting her, of driving her away before she gave up on him. In fifth grade, she left their school and on the last day he had stuck a paper on her back that said "Cheer loud, I'm leaving". He had hated the hollers of glee that followed her, but soaked up the acceptance of his peers.

Meliodas is pulling at his hair, tormenting himself and in front of Zeldris' chop shop, he changes his plans for the night. It's a three-car garage, 'mechanics' shop with red-chipped bay doors in front, dark bricks climbing high with windows on the top floor. The neighborhood in this part of town isn't great as gunshots can be heard through the night, but a street over the shops were expanding. The goal is to eventually be a legit business.

Zeldris lives above the place in a two bedroom apartment with his wife, Gelda. Meliodas walks around to the back alley, slipping into the back door, using his key. Inside is a large open warehouse-like space with pillars holding up the tall ceiling to accommodate for lifts. Tools and tool boxes lined the place. At night everything is wheeled into their 'safe room' which doubled as their office and locked up.

He waves to Gelda covered in grease smears while pulling pieces of an engine out of a navy blue Jeep. She is standing inside the hood. "Mel!" Zeldris calls over, in a black coverall zipped up to mid-chest, he rolls out from under the Jeep on a red torn up creeper with off-color foam puffing out of the tears.

"I don't want to intrude," Meliodas says to his older brother and mid-sentence looks to Gelda in her messy overalls, her dyed blue hair pulled back in a ponytail today. Both are about to protest, insist he stay, but Meliodas continues, "I'm just gonna stash my stuff and stop by before school."

Gelda gives Zeldris a meaningful look that Meliodas is not privy to while heading toward the safe-office. He had a key for that too. Zeldris does a groaning sit up, rolling to his feet and meanders across the cement floor of his garage while stretching out his back from laying too long. "We want you to move in." His brother says to the back of Meliodas' head as he drops his backpack beside the sole, chipped and dirty, composite desk.

"We've been over this." Meliodas replies, unable to look his brother in the eyes. They have the same emerald green eyes and the boy has a hard enough time looking at them in himself, so when Meliodas sees them shining with love toward him, rather than hate, it hurts.

"Leave mother to her own misery." Zeldris' guesses the reason for the refusal is to protect their mother like they both used to as boys, he is only partially right.

"I owe her everything." Meliodas quips back, believing it. He feels he would not have changed into the person he is now, that he would not have been better in time for Elizabeth's arrival without her. Meliodas feels like he owes his mother more because of the chance he has now to make it up to the people who matter most.

"She sold you out." Zeldris scoffs and with the tone shift, Meliodas looks up to his older brother grateful the tenderness left his face. "She'll do it again!" The brothers had a lot of similarities, stature, build and shortness from malnutrition but what separates them is their hair. Meliodas took after his father's blonde and Zeldris inherited their mother's black locks, but when Zeldris' hands come up to pull at his dark hair the boys might as well be twins. Their expressions are even the same tense resentfulness but not directed at one another. They are different sides to the same coin.

"Thanks." Meliodas speaks loud so Gelda will hear. He tucks his keys away and grabs his phone in the hopes that Elizabeth will text him before heading to the door.

"We do want you to stay." Gelda's soft voice is a slice to Meliodas' heart. One of the hardest things for this boy is neither Zeldris or Gelda is on his list of sins. His brother gave back what he got before he moved out and Gelda had come into Zeldris' life at just the right time to save him. She met Meliodas while he was being reformed through Juvie. Meliodas thinks neither of them will understand, he doesn't know that they both have been where he is.

"I want to, too." Meliodas tells her, meeting her clear violet eyes and meaning it. He wants to stay but he can't. He does not want them to be hassled with his dead body when he goes. He has to die or he might hurt someone again and if that person is Elizabeth... he can't even bear the thought. He handles what he's done already so poorly he fears a repeat or a spontaneous return of his past self! "I can't." Meliodas' voice cracks and Gelda maneuvers out of the jeeps frame to reach him, but he leaves before she gets close.

Zeldris goes after him, not leaving the frame of the back door but when it comes time to yell, the elder brother is at a loss of what to say. Zeldris thinks 'it's the blind leading the crippled with me and my brother.' Meliodas doesn't stop and Zeldris is left trying to find a way to make up for his own past action, because if Zeldris did have a list of sins, Meliodas would be on it.

Gelda's grease smeared arms wrap around Zeldris' head and the two embrace, holding one another as they talk softly. "I think he's still clean." Gelda whispers and Zeldris nods before replying "I'm going to make sure." After a moment of breathing one another in, Gelda returns to her work on the Jeep and Zeldris goes to the safe-office, searching through his brothers backpack. Nothing catches his eye except the letter addressed to Elizabeth and he calls Gelda over to read it, they are both careful to wash their hands thoroughly before touching it.

.X X X.

Meliodas thinks his confession letter is safe inside his backpack, and it is, but it's not safe inside his head. The words he's written swarms 'the damage I inflicted, not only to your person but to our friendship... I put you in the hospital and you never turned me in. I wish you would have, just once, as I am, nor ever have been, worthy of your loyalty' and another of 'there is nothing I can do, or tell you, that can ever make up for the relentless torment...' The walk home is treacherous with his self-loathing writhing like a suffocating snake in his ever-expanding dark wrath. In front of his dilapidated house, the sounds are aggressive and the boy is grateful that his father has not passed out or moved on to something better to do.

Meliodas wraps his phone and keys in his hoodie, stashing them among the junk piled on their porch before swinging the door open and hollering "Get the fuck out, old man!" Already the boy's chest is loosening, walking into the house with masochistic anticipation, his heart races and his mind eases. 'I need to hurt as I hurt her. I want to atone.' His father, with the same messy blonde hair and hateful green eyes is the older version of Meliodas. His father smiles wickedly at his son and leaves Meliodas' mother's sobbing body in the corner to focus on the new target.

Unlike Meliodas, the man's teeth are messed up from the violence and from his ingestion of substances that stain. He's still in his black guards uniform, badge off-kilter, top buttons undone and sleeves rolled up from his exertion of beating his wife. When the man's fists connect to the side of Meliodas' head, the boy smiles hoping the blow will make him forget. The strikes continue and with each injury Meliodas feels lighter, better, as if his body can take the burden from his soul. The boy's mother slinks to her room, the door off the living room and when it taps closed Meliodas notices the sound. 'She's always been a coward' Meliodas thinks, but he doesn't blame her.

The next morning, Meliodas wakes with a groan, his body moving slowly from the new aches and pains that follow a beating. He had crawled up the stairs last night and made it to his room coherent enough to set his alarm clock. The boy leaves, groggy and still having to take his morning piss but he holds it as he regathers his hoodie, checking his phone for any texts before heading to Zeldris'.

The boy stretches the ache from his hip and pulls his neck from side to side in the dark morning. His eyes are struggling to stay open this morning, but he knows the way and his feet carry him back to his brothers shop slower than usual. Meliodas does not want Elizabeth to wait for him, he likes to be waiting for her, with the thought crossing his mind, he picks up his pace.

Zeldris is up, waiting himself. He opens the door while Meliodas fiddles with his keys outside of it and his brother offers him a cup of coffee already brewed in his fist. Meliodas' stomach turns at the thought and shifts his head away from it. The dark haired man laughs, sipping the cup himself. "That bad, huh? Been there." Zeldris' winces through his words.

Meliodas ignores his brother and goes to the shops greasy bathroom after grabbing his backpack to ready himself for the day. "Gelda did your laundry." Zeldris adds through the door, softly and Meliodas scowls at his non-fracturing reflection. He knows that means they both most likely went through his stuff but he also knows it's all still there, the trade off is negligible.

"We need to talk about that love letter." His brother calls again through the door and Meliodas ignores the discoloration of his ribs and thigh as he stabs his legs angrily into his jeans. "Elizabeth, she's the girl whose arm you broke?" Again, he does not answer his older brother. Instead, he looks through his bag and finds the letter still there, folded up and waiting for her. Meliodas' jaw is discolored and there's a cut on his eyebrow but once he cleaned the dried blood from his face, he looks passable. He plans to keep his head down, to let his shaggy hair hide his penance.

Meliodas emerges from the little bathroom with his backpack on and ready to go. The boy meets his brother's green eyes, knowing Zeldris read the letter makes Meliodas expect his brother to feel towards him how he feels towards himself. What Meliodas finds in his brothers green eyes, a strong respect, it burns Meliodas more painful than the whole of the beating he received last night. Zeldris' lips are tipped up in a sheepish smile. The brothers stare for a few moments, Meliodas' face a tense, wavering shakey expression.

The blonde boy can't bear the look a moment longer, his throat closing with thick bile filing his mouth. A hoarse noise leaks from Meliodas. Zeldris' tender expression becomes more so at the noise. Meliodas escapes the awkward situation, but before he slips away Zeldris hands him a brown bag lunch.

Meliodas is out the back door, enterings the alley when his brothers stilting voice follows him, "Have a good day." The blonde boy flushes, embarrassed. He looks inside the sack lunch after he turns in the direction of the school with tense eyes. Inside is a peanut butter jelly, an apple and a bottle of water.

Peanut butter and jelly reminds him of her, but most things do.

He stops, putting the sack inside his backpack and checks the time on the face of his phone. He has a text and it's from her. He smiles, his breathing eases as he opens the little envelope. "Shit!" The boy curses, shoving his phone inside his pants and adjusts his bag on his back before taking off at a run.

The boy makes it to school late, he doesn't bother stopping at his locker and instead runs through the empty halls to get to their first block History class. He rushes in, skims over the faces even though he knows she isn't here. Mrs. Jillian looks to him, startled, but he turns and goes, her stern voice calling after him but he doesn't stop. He searches the place, the nurses office, the counsellors, he sends her a returning text of -Where are you?- before he sees Diane's bouncing pigtails turning a corner ahead of him.

"Meliodas!" She calls loud, before wincing and looking through the doors of the classrooms nearest her. He reaches her between the rows of closed lockers, checking his phone again. "She's in the bathroom cleaning up. Took a nasty spill. Her binders opened on impact and her notes were scattered everywhere. Took the pair of us a couple minutes to gather them back up."

"Did she tell you that, or did you see her fall?" Meliodas demands, vicious. Diane doesn't answer, biting her lip and looking to the scuffed dirty tiles under her toes. She hadn't seen it, Diane wonders what she's done to make Meliodas mad again but she shakes it off, pointing to the girls bathroom around the corner and mutters "another tardy will land me in detention".

Meliodas leaves Diane behind as soon as she points and does not look back. He knocks on the door with quick hits and instantly thinks 'you're an idiot' and pinches his eyes shut. He can't go inside so he tosses his bag across the hall, it slides over the floor and taps against the heavy stones there. He follows it, sits with his knees high and his side protests with an ache as he bends. 'Fuck' Meliodas thinks, his head falling back as he watches the tubes of fluorescent light flicker overhead.

His phone shakes, its her, and he opens the text with fumbling fingers from his eagerness.

-In the bathroom, my skirt ripped so I'm fixing it.-

He texts back instantly, -Diane told me what happened, I'm here now, right outside the door-

He runs his hands through his hair, pushing it back form his face with a grimace. He didn't want to know but he needed to know, 'does she still have that bad habit of protecting the undeserving?'

-You fell? Just like when I broke your arm?-

Meliodas hates himself in that moment, he sends it grinding his teeth together painfully from the pressure of his jaw. For him it feels like a cold chunk of ice breaks off inside his head and slithers down his throat to rest heavy in his gut. It leaks wisps of fog that spread through his limbs and he hopes it kills him. 'She needed you' he hisses in his mind, hoping his father comes home again tonight for a repeat as he feels it's obvious he need his head slammed a few more times.

That is when a worse case scenario occurs. The fire alarm blares, teachers mill out with students in tow like ants following a scent trail. Meliodas stands, expecting Elizabeth to rush out like the rest of them and it takes the boy too long to realize she can't hear. The alarms are audio only and Meliodas feels a flash of hot anger that the world didn't consider flashing lights, 'what if this is a real fire!' He thinks hotly before calling out to a girl in leggings walking past at the end of her teachers line. "Will you go in the bathroom and get-" but the girl pretends not to hear Meliodas.

He generally has a low tolerance for bullshit but in regards to Elizabeth and her safety, his patience level reaches nill. He needs to get her, now. The halls are emptying of the last straggling students and with a quick look from one end to the other, Meliodas walks to the girls bathroom door, turns around, and pushes it open with his rear. 'She's been back in my life for less than a week and I'm invading her privacy like this? I should just text her!'

The room is painted an off pink, tiles on the floors and walls are of a similar pink but in better shape than his bathroom back home. Three white, rectangle sinks are under a horizontal mirror, the piping exposed underneath and they are covered is sea green grime. In the reflection are rows of dark brown stalls, only one is closed and he walks to it, raising his hand to knock before cursing himself.

He tapped his foot under the door and pulls out his phone to text her when he hears a little breathy squeak. Meliodas steps back, almost to the sinks when he sees her shimmering eye line up with the gap of the door. The metal lock slides open and she steps out, her bag held in her hand by the top handle her other hand a fist over her heart.

He looks her over to assess for injury. She's in a black gore skirt that reaches just above her knees, the flowing material hides the tear Elizabeth mended just moments ago. He had forgotten she had texted about her skirt as he had been busy beating himself up. He should have been preparing himself for the shock of all that creamy exposed flesh as without the preparation his hand flies to his heart as if to hold it in his chest. Her shirt has a tie around her waist that cinches it tight but the rest of the fabric is flowing off her bosom and down her arms.

He can tell she's been crying. 'From my text or because my speculation is right and someone targeted her?'

Meliodas raises his hands to sign but freezes. He does not remember the gesture for 'alarm' or 'fire'. He signs 'bad-sound' then points to the ceiling. Her pretty eyebrows pinch together, her lips part and his breathing shifts with an aggressive edge. Meliodas shakes his head, dismissing the fire and the continuous blare outright. If he smells smoke, he'll boost her out the window. He'd find a way to save her. Instead, he signs "You okay?"

"This is the girl's bathroom." Elizabeth signs back, a little watery smile pulling at the edge of her glossy lips. She looks different today, Meliodas is oblivious enough not to realize why but she had taken the time to do her make up this morning. With the cute outfit and extra attention, one can assume she is making an effort for someone. Meliodas simply sheepishly chuckled, his hand pushes back his hair, which inadvertently exposes his cut brow.

Immediately, Elizabeth gasps, reaching forward and her finger tips touch the side of his face just shy of his wound. Meliodas leans into the touch, nose flaring and emotions erupting like thousands of birds being released from their cage, blacking out the sky of everything else. He can hardly breathe, but somehow manages to endure the onslaught without making a fool of himself. "What happened?" She signed with her teeth worrying away the gloss on her bottom lip.

"It's nothing." He mouths without his voice, she doesn't need it. The lip movements are what is important. With the communication, he can't meet her eyes and looks down to her pretty calves. A little red smear catches his eye and he frowns, dropping into a crouch ignoring his body's protest of not only leaving her touch but from the damage his father gifted him. At knee level, her scent washes over him and he breathes deep, a loud inhale, he even leans into it as he looks over her scrape. His hand cups the back of her knee, his thumb moving across the side of her smooth flesh and he glowers at the mark, noticing little flecks of sand in her miniscule cuts.

'Nothing should mar her.' He drops his touch reluctantly 'not even me.' Meliodas expects his flesh to have physically left a dark mark on her glowing, smooth skin, but she's still perfect outside of her wound. 'The debris could give her an infection'. He doesn't think, simply stands and grabs for her waist. She flinches, her face pinches in a wince and her hands come up between them as if to guard against his assault with her palms out. Elizabeth doesn't make a sound.

He lingers in the torment her reaction sparks. 'Why would she want you to touch her?' Meliodas thinks to himself. 'The last time you grabbed for her, you became who you hate most and hit her to feel better about yourself.' It had not worked, he's tried many things to make him feel better and the only balm that could touch it is Elizabeth herself. He broke the only relationship that matters before he realized how precious it was. Back in grade school Meliodas already had a problem with self-loathing, but after he battered her, he became his own nemesis. That feeling returns as her hands lower and her fearful face focuses on his frozen one.

He is afraid moving will scare her enough to run for the door so he just stares, wishing he could go back in time, just once, to beat his younger self into understanding why he needs to protect her. Slowly, he signs "You're hurt." he points to her knee, "I should have asked, but can I clean it?"

Elizabeth's blue eyes sparkle like starlight as they fill with tears. She straightens, takes a shaky breath and approaches Meliodas with caution, her hands fist at her sides when they drop. "I'm sorry" Meliodas mutters, unable to look away from her eyes, disdaining a single tear falling. He does not want to be the reason for them. "What happened?" He signs, brows up to indicate a question and pointing to her knee.

"I fell." She signs, lips quivering and he scowls. He turns from her with a disbelieving look to unroll a few brown paper towels from the dispenser. With the sink, he wets one, stepping to her and dropping to his knees before her again. There is space between them, about a full step but enough for her to know she's in control. Slowly, her little feet step to him and he notices she has strappy little sandals on. It's then that he puts two and two together and he wonders if Elizabeth likes someone enough to try to look even better than she normally does.

With her little scrape within reach he puts the few dry towels over his jean covered thigh and cups the back of her calf to bend her knee. She fumbles forward, her hand gripping his shoulder to steady herself and he groans painfully, which falls on deaf ears. He braves it, dabbing the wet paper across her tiny little wound. When the little pieces of rubble are gone, tiny little pricks of blood form and he dabs it with one of the many dry ones. The care he gives her passes quickly and he releases her leg regretfully. He wishes she would hold on to him for longer but with her foot on solid ground, she steps back.

He signs up from the floor, "If I could take the wound for you, I would," and she stares as if trying to figure him out. "I have something for you." He stands, walks to his backpack and pulls out the folded sheets of paper. "Read it later, when you're alone." He signs awkwardly with the letter in his grip. Elizabeth notices how nervous he is, that his cheeks tint pink when she takes the paper and she opens her own bag to zip it into the front pocket, her curiosity burns as she could see through the sheets enough to know there are rows and rows of words. It's thick, more than a few pages long. "You look nice." He says then shakes his hands out "You always look nice, but I like the skirt."

Elizabeth flushes, she is glad but looks away, debating with herself on whether to tell him or not. Meliodas hears students returning and he takes his backpack to swing over his shoulder. He motions for her to come along and she follows, her pack doesn't chime with her dangling markers and he looks over the handle at the top. The hook is there, the chains still attached but the markers have been snapped off.

Meliodas knows, first hand, how far Elizabeth will allow another to push her while still protecting them. He does not press her to tell him, but he wants to minimize the opportunities for any harassment going further. A scattered backpack is a rather low-level offense compared to his crimes against her. He still plans on beating the fuck out of whoever did it, but he pushes those feelings down as they exit the girl's room together. They miss their first block class, heading straight for Psychology with Mr. Helbram.

The lights are shut off, a TV had been wheeled in and a film starts about a little girl traumatized as a child into being a psychopath and how she overcame it. There were no subtitles and Mr. Helbram gives Elizabeth the transcript of the movie, which has all the makings of a play script for all the help it did with following along. The two sat at the table together, fumbling with the thing before they look to one another with a connection of thought, each of them clearly understood the other thinking 'this is stupid.'

Elizabeth signs, "Can I look through your notebook? Mine are all out of order." Meliodas reconfirms she can have anything she wants from his pack. He wishes she does not need the reassurance, but gives it.

"Take anything of mine, Elizabeth." In the dark he misses her cheeks flaring red. Meliodas takes notes on the worksheet he had been given and watches the movie. He's distracted and does not notice which notebook she pulls from his pack.

She found his writing notebook, the one he uses for Mr. Hawks class but also to make lists. She opens it, the first page catches her eye as her name is on the top of it, under the heading 'Sins'. A little aggressively, she pushes the notebook across the table and the worksheet Meliodas had been writing on moves under his pencil, a line from his pencil mark scratches over a printed question.

His heart drops as he sees what she is showing him. Meliodas is glad he did not detail what the list is for beyond sins. He moves his pencil from the accidental line to his notepad and writes,

-when you read the letter, you will understand.-

Her head leans in, the long tresses of her hair stroke his forearm. Instantly he shakes his head, his blonde shaggy hair moving along his cut brow as he thinks, 'she deserves more than that answer'. So he writes out a little explanation under his first beside the other names on his list.

-You know, a bucket list? Things you want to do before you die? This is mine, I have to earn forgiveness from those I've wronged.-

She reads as he writes.

Elizabeth reaches for her markers, he catches the movement but there aren't any left, they all snapped off from whatever happened this morning. Meliodas offers her his wooden pencil and she accepts it with a smile to him, his breathing stops as her finger grazes his. 'Her light is so strong, maybe it will push back my darkness?' But when he looks at his empty hand while she's writing, to Meliodas it looks just as unworthy of her as the rest of him.

-We're only friends again because you think you've wronged me?-

He reads her handwriting and frowns at her words. He reaches for his pencil back but she moves it, putting it to his list again to start scrawling another message.

-When we were kids, you were my best friend.-

Hot anger rushes through him, searing his synapsis and he can't think for a moment.

'I had been her best friend? How is that possible with how I treated her?' His rage sharpens inside, to himself and also to the other people she knew. His eyes grow wide to stare at the screen with the intent of not scaring her again. The past tense of her admission hurts more than he deserves. 'Had no one shown Elizabeth what a real friendship should be like? That should have been my job! I could have set the bar for her standards,' a fearful thought enters his brain unwanted. 'or I had, and it is severely low because of me.'

Memories return to Meliodas and for the first time in years, he remembers a partially good one, one involving her. An older boy at recess, Hendy, had pushed her down and Meliodas sprung into action, running to them. He had decked the older boy in the face. 'I protected her?' The memory sours as he knows he told the boy, bleeding on the ground, "She's mine to hurt!" Anxiety grips at Meliodas' throat as he remembers thinking 'Only I'm allowed to love her.' The rest of the memory completes in his mind's eye. Meliodas kicked the little Elizabeth as if it were her fault another boy hurt her, as if to replace Hendy's wound with one of his own.

He goes cold in his seat, his fist clenching over the table top as he thinks to himself, 'I should have picked her up, I should have cleaned her scrape like I did today'. It had taken over a year of counselling from Juvenile Detention on, for him to realize what Elizabeth had meant to him. The boy knows why it happened but he cannot forgive it, he can hardly accept it. Refuses to live with it.

Elizabeth's little hand touches the back of his and his green eyes focus on the contact, his chest constricting and expanding at the same time causing a strange sensation in his torso. It leaves his skin and she signs "What happens when I'm marked off your list?" The boy cannot look at the girl, as to him she is like the sun and he feels that looking directly at her blaze while the world is this black will scorch him.

"You'll be free of me." Meliodas signs back and because the boy is not looking at her face, he does not see the devastation. Her shoulders sag, her hands fall to the table top, her elbows make little thuds of noise and she thinks 'He's only around me out of guilt. He'll be done with me when he's finished'. This makes sense to Elizabeth and she reads what he wrote on the notebook paper again.

Unbeknownst to Meliodas this gives Elizabeth an idea.

Things are tense between the two. In Elizabeth's downtime, she unsnaps her binders to reorder her papers. Meliodas pretends not to watch her and takes detailed notes thinking it's a good idea in case hers are more than simply tossed around next time she's caught alone by some assholes. The letter in Elizabeth's backpack is on her mind, she tries to distract herself but in the end she can't help but wish time to go faster. She considers going to the bathroom and reading it but she knows the 'girls' sign will not stop him from coming for her.

At the end of the day, Diane accosts the two of them at her locker. Elizabeth flips her books around, while Diane tells her "I can walk partially home with you, I turn down 7th before the middle school. You go straight past it, right?" Elizabeth is not looking at her mouth but stops moving to focus on her midway through her talking. Meliodas notices she is confused and interprets.

"How did you learn Sign Language? It must have taken you awhile. Did you take a class at your old school? Will you teach me?" Diane asks Meliodas and Elizabeth is watching this time, she reads her lips to a fairly accurate degree.

"You changed schools?" Elizabeth signs. Meliodas nods to her, signing subtly "Read the letter, we'll text later" as he looks over Diane as if he can discern her ulterior motives from the outside. Elizabeth though, sees his interest in her and believes this is the girl he likes. Meliodas looks down the hall both ways to check for Diane's bitchy friends before signing and speaking his answer to Diane so both girls will understand him. "Sit with us at lunch, we can teach you then." He turns to Elizabeth and asks with his back a little to Diane, "Do you want her to walk with you? I can get rid of her," using signs.

Elizabeth grins, big and broad. Her assessment that Meliodas might like Diane wavers with his actions to her until she notices Meliodas physically steps back and she sees him stare at her in apparent bewilderment. Elizabeth grows embarrassed, flushing hot as she turns from him to nod at Diane with a smile. She thinks 'maybe he doesn't like me romantically either and I'm just on his list?'

While Meliodas, still a bit weary of Diane's motives, thinks 'it will be nice to make sure Elizabeth has a true friend, one that will do right by her, before I off myself'. After their stop at Meliodas' locker, where Diane asks only yes or no questions to Elizabeth, they leave the building together. Meliodas is to turn right and Elizabeth, left. Diane leads the way, turning without hesitation but the boy stops to watch and he notes that his sweet Elizabeth looks back to him. She waves over her shoulder, telling him "Text you later" with her pretty, nimble hands.

He understands she means after she's read the letter and the boy watches her go, his hands suddenly sweaty. His breathing changes to short intakes, his stomach rolls and he wonders if he can keep down those off-holiday treats he ate at lunch. Meliodas is a ball of nerves. He is directionless with no place to be until five for his shift at the Grocery-Mart.

Meliodas wanders back to his brothers to thank them both properly with his actions, unable to do it with words. The boy helps his family pull apart the rest of the jeep, the men both more comfortable sharing things when working with their hands and not looking at anyone's face. Meliodas cleans up, changes into his work polo and on his way his shaking returns without his brother and sister-in-law to distract him from the impending text.

His phone is on him the entire time. He checks it, seemingly with every few steps he takes while restocking. No matter how hard the boy tries, he can't seem to warm up, his fingers are ice cold and trembling as he forces them to do his bidding. His breathing is shallow, his head swimming. 'She must have read it by now, it's been hours since school ended'. Meliodas fears he went too far, he told her everything except how he feels for her and his suicide plans.

How he landed in juvie.

The state-funded reform school.

Counselling visits and he confessed his other sins, the ones against the other people on his list.

He even wrote about his parents and their influences.

None of it 'excuses' him, he outlines that specifically. He had made those choices, he bullied and hurt her. Meliodas simply wants her to understand how much he's changed, is still evolving. He wants her to know this version of himself just as well as she had known him as a child. Her fear of him, to see it in her crystal eyes again, it's well deserved but unbearable. The thought makes his chest feel as if it closes in on itself and he tries to stretch it out until the feelings pass. 'Should I text her?' He thinks but his fears stops him.

If he doesn't know her reaction, if she does not tell him how deplorable he is to her, then she's still in his life for a few hours longer. Meliodas does not eat the rest of the night. He plucks a few dried goods from the free cart in the break room to shove in his bag for lunch and leaves after his shift. The boy resolves that she does not want him in her life, he does not think there is a single reason for her to ever cast her gaze in his direction again, he's is undoubtedly blessed to have had the last few days with her again.

'I got to experience her once more, to help her just a little while she allowed it. I even got to touch her skin... I can die happy with the few good memories I've squeezed from her'. Meliodas thinks as he nears his mother's house. He knows it will be quiet for a few days. He took the rest of his mother beating, she will leave him be and his father unleashed his pent up rage, so he would not be around until it reaches the dangerous levels once more.

He adds clothes to his backpack, stuffing them into the bottom as he left his dirty ones at his brothers. Meliodas checks his phone, thinking it's stupid he has not given up yet. He showers that night, keeping himself under the freezing stream for an extra few minutes as it eases the nausea and cuts at his skin. 'You broke her bone. What fucking reason would she have to want you in her life?'

Meliodas exits the bathroom in his pajama pants, backpack slung over his wet back as he does not trust those in this house with everything important to him. The boy locks his bedroom door with a twist of the doorknob dongle, sets his backpack at the right angle for a quick grab-and-bolt and checks his phone. His heart races, he does a double take not believing it but he opens it eagerly.

-You have a gift with words, Meliodas.-

He checks the received time and calculates that its been ten minutes. The boy curses out loud as he stretches across his floor mattress with his phone trembling in his hands. The boy had no idea from her endearing text if she means it as a goodbye but from it he gathers she must not hate him, to message him at all is good. He hits reply, typing out a few messages and chuckles ruefully as he backspaces them all thinking he must not be that good at words if he can't find them now. His phone buzzes in his hand and opens another text from her.

-You seem to have forgotten a lot of things. I'll remind you. Will you meet me early tomorrow? I have something to show you.-

Meliodas ponders if he's blocked something horrible out. It must be bad for her to be referencing something and setting a time to specifically talk about it. His mind races and his nausea returns with a vengeance. 'Fuck, I've done so many horrible things to her I can't even remember them all!' With the thought in mind, and with him thinking about her 'falling' with all her notes scattering, he sends her a suggestion.

-I'll walk you to school. What's your address and when do you want me to be there?-

Once it's sent, Meliodas realizes he hadn't asked if he could. He simply told her he will. His cheeks flush and he wishes he could delete it and start the message over. To beg her if she will please allow him this luxury of seeing her for a few moments longer before school. That he wants to protect her, not put her in an awkward position, but to save her from them. Diane had sparked an envy in him, she got to walk with her. He fights the feeling, addressing the realization with as healthy a mindset as he can.

She sends her address, with the early morning time she plans to leave her house. He looks up the distance on his phone, wincing as he notes from his house to hers it's a forty minute walk. Not counting walking back to the school after he gets her, it is a whole hour of walking just to see her for a third of that time.

-I'll be there.-

He messages back, smiling before it dawns on him that she may want to meet him early to tell him to his face she does not want him in his life. 'The risk of any involvement with me isn't worth it for her. How can it be?' Meliodas groans, rubbing at his own face and digging his fingers into his eye sockets. 'Fuuuuck'.

Meliodas doesn't sleep at all, but time passes strangely so he assumes he slept by the brief periods of passing out and awakening with no knowledge of the occurances. The alarm buzzes earlier than ever, his eyes are open as he stares at the offending thing. In the bathroom, he tries to fix his hair again, scowls at his bruise-covered face that looks worse with the dark half circles under his eyes. Meliodas grumbles his way through getting ready, slips out and is on the streets before the sun is.

Her house is on the good side of town. He did not need his phone to tell him where to go as he memorized the route last night. Meliodas passes their school, dark and ominous, down the next few blocks, he goes by the Middle school too. The boy is glad he will not need to pass the Elementary school as he fears those memories, they feel raw to him right now as he thinks he is walking to his own execution.

To him Elizabeth's right to flay him open is tantamount to gospel. The boy is already trying to clear his mind of his dread and jitters so he can commit each of her condemnations to memory. Meliodas is early, he does not wish to be as he fears he is cutting the last few minutes of his world with her short, but he does not want her to wait for him or worry he will not show.

He does not approach the door. The boy checks the number on the house and looks it over with interest. It's a two story brick home with nice colored shutters on either side of oversized windows. Her lawn is green, a tree growing in the few feet of space she had in the front as on either side were other homes a few feet away. A half-sized brick wall framed it like a border of her territory and he stood at the gate, not unhooking the latch but instead standing before it to look up at her home.

The roof is clean, black slates and her gutters are shiny, her steps to the front door are evenly spaced with not a fleck of rot touching the place. A piece of the boy is very relieved she is well cared for but another part shrivels as to him this is a prime example of how different they are, how they don't match together.

A curtain moves in a window, the far right one at the corner of the house and his eyes are drawn to it. Meliodas knows its her, his soul simply recognizes her. 'She's there'. The light snaps on and through the sheer curtain her silhouette is outlined. She's dressing, the curves of her body a perfectly formed shadow that awakes Meliodas is ways he has not felt in months. He's frozen, staring, his jaw slacks open as he stiffens painfully in his pants.

The boy knows its wrong to look, yet he can't stop himself. She pulls her shirt on, her hands feeling over her own breasts and ribs and down farther. Meliodas groans out loud as he adjusts himself for better comfort, the ache does not lessen and he tighten as she bends. 'I must never touch her! She is a goddess and I am nothing!' He ends his thought with vicious threats to himself. The thought that his want of her body will not matter as she will never want him, helps him breath through the crippling despair. He's felt it since they parted school yesterday but it amplified after her texts as it sparked the thought of losing her once she breaks off their friendship.

She's seen who he really is and he expects her to not want a thing to do with him, he doesn't want to be around himself. Her graceful form steps away from the window and the spell over his body is broken. The sun had risen while he'd been senseless, the lad had hardly noticed. Melioda breaths, pulling out his phone to contact her.

-I'm here, take your time.-

To save himself from another session of peeping he turns his back to her house, steps over to the half wall and leans there with his shoes on the cement sidewalk and his backpack's weight resting on the bricks. A car drives by, a nice one with all the windows still intact. He waits.

A moment later, her front door opens and Meliodas turns in time to watch her round behind step out into the morning. She locks the door with an over encumbered set of keys full of colorful baubles. He drinks her in, from her strappy sandals with her little painted toes peeking out, up her lithe legging covered legs to her shapely pastel dress that swayed around her hips and accentuated her curves.

Elizabeth's hair is in a ponytail and when she smiles at him, his heart races in alarm. 'Why isn't she yelling at me?' He thinks as her pale hair bobs, along with her ample bosom, with each step down her stairs. She has a piece of paper in her grip. He jolts into action, grateful for the slim hope that she does not hate him and flips the clasp of her gate open for her, holding the iron as she steps out onto the sidewalk.

She holds out the white sheet and Meliodas accepts it after letting the gate close with a crash of clanging metal. In black block letters the paper reads "Your voice is awful. Keep your mouth closed." A heavy weight presses against Meliodas and his body stops functioning. His hard on fades. She kept this paper, one he had given her, from years ago.

Meliodas's legs give out and he sags to his knees, the paper wobbles in his trembling fists. The boy stares at the words he'd written and wonders if this is what she meant when she messaged him about his 'way with words'. His heart drops, joining the ice shards in his tummy and he welcomes the feel of numbing frost creeping over the organ.

The boy is unfocused, remembering the day she had spoken to him across their pushed together desks, her voice had sounded as if she held her nose. Meliodas had refused to talk back, writing this and pushing it to her. He can not remember if he had been angry or embarrassed but this must have affected her and he had not mentioned it in his letter.

Elizabeth's smooth fingers dance before the boys eyes and he focuses, confused as to why she is kneeling on the ground too. Her hands move and she signs, "No, not this, look", before she flips the page over. On the other side of the insult is one of his old elementary worksheets with silly 'getting to know you' questions about his favorite superhero and who he looks up to. Elizabeth's groomed digit points to a line toward the lower middle. The question reads: Who is your best friend?

Meliodas' heart squeezes tight, the ice thawing and steaming away as he grows suddenly too warm. The child him had written her name, Ellie. 'She kept it because of my answer, not because of my cruelty'. Meliodas thinks to himself and he slowly raises his expectant green eyes to her compassionate ones. He thinks in that moment, with her cerulean eyes shining with unshed tears that they look like diamonds with the wavy facets in her iris'. He drops the paper, it floats between them and lands worksheet side up as he signs to her.

"I'm sorry. Your voice is beautiful, I was an angry, fucked up kid and you suffered." She doesn't need to look away from his face to understand his signs and her smile softens. Her hands come up, they touch either side of his face and her skin on his cheeks is like a defibrillator to him, his body tensing from the currents of electricity. For a fleeting moment, he thinks she's going to kiss him and his mind blanks as he looks to her glistening plump lips. Her flesh leaves him in order for her to sign, to speak in her language.

"You only remembered the bad." Her hands pause, his heart aches and he thinks 'what good could there have been with how I treated you' but she continues "I loved you back then, Meliodas. You protected me, talked to me about everything. I just messed up all the time and made you mad. It was all my fault." The ice forms over his heart again as she adjusts her backpack and pulls out the letter to clench it to her chest, her face full of adoration. His thoughts turn dark 'how can this girl, so bright and perfect think any of that shit had been her fault?' To him, it feels as if a blade struck home. "You've grown up into a wonderful man, Meliodas. I knew you would." He feels the blade twist inside him as he wonders how she could get him so wrong.


	3. Greed

A/N: Same warning apply. Thank you for reading, for the reviews and the kind words to those that have reached out to me.

Chapter Three: Greed

It takes Meliodas three weeks before he accepts her words, not as truth, but as her truth. 'I want to live up to her view of me, until the end', he resolves to his cracked reflection in his dingy home bathroom. He's ready, sneaks out under his strung-out mother's nose and is on the streets before the sun rises.

The two have been texting one another every hour on the hour during the days, even while together, having two separate conversations at the same time.

When Meliodas' phone goes off, he is surprised. He assumes it is Elizabeth and a sliver of disappointment goes through him as he thinks 'I've missed watching her through her window'. A daily show he enjoys throughout their week, the exciting thought that gets him out of bed so early. The name on his screen is his brother's and he frowns at the words.

-Come over after work, you can do your laundry here.-

Meliodas sends an affirmative, wondering if they will need any help around the garage to pay them back for the soap and water. The lad walks to her house, standing on the sidewalk past her gate as this spot has the best view. Her curtain shifts a moment before the light is switched on. He seems to always arrive just when he needs to, to enjoy this. She's not moving and he's already tenting in his pants.

He watches her back arch, her hand raises up in a stretch making her breasts enhance prettily and it's a leisurely affair. It takes her a few moments longer today and the lad's member strains against his pants. She's gone from her window a weary breath later and Meliodas wonders how much torture he can stand. 'An eternity of it, for her.'

As is the norm, he texts her he's here after he watches her. She comes out a moment later, in jeans and a t-shirt with a paper bag in her hands. After she's locked her door and stored her keys in her bag she bounces down the steps with jiggling breasts while signing. "I made you a lunch."

Meliodas opens her gate for her, taking the bag when she offers it. It's heavy and his brows furrow as he looks at her in concern.

"We haven't started cooking in home ec yet and you only eat junk food, so I wanted to make you something better." Elizabeth smiles, she is genuine in her actions and Meliodas appreciates the lack of pity on her face. The two walk to school and on the way, Elizabeth puts her hand on his arm, he looks and she signs "you inspired me to write a bucket list."

Meliodas flushes, faltering in his steps and Elizabeth grabs for him but he steadies on his own. He asks to see it and she turns beet red, telling him "maybe later" but his curiosity is piqued. They are in front of the middle school when Meliodas pulls his bag around and stuffs her lunch inside. A few boys run by, pushing and provoking one another on their way to school.

"Isn't that the retarded girl?" The tall one asks the younger and the little boy grins. They wave over to the pair and Elizabeth confusedly waves back. "Yeah, for sure. Maybe she'll show us her tits if we give her some money. How much you got?" The boys start digging in their pockets and Meliodas steps to the other side of Elizabeth, her walking nearer the street with their swapped positions as he gives the lot a death glare. They scatter, tripping over themselves to get away.

"What's going on?" Elizabeth signs after getting his attention. He shrugs it off, not wanting to tell her and she frowns. Up to now, Meliodas has been very good at including Elizabeth in everything around her. For her, it is a refreshing change but to have him push aside her question after so many patient explanations, it shames her and she wonders what she did to cause the change.

The two get through their morning and at lunch, Meliodas opens his sack with an eager grin that raises Elizabeth's spirits. He pulls out a sandwich, cut into a star shape and he laughs, head back and hair shaking from the noise. Elizabeth wishes she could hear it but giggles at his reaction in spite of her somber thoughts. His laugh stops, eyes ablaze with something deep as he watches her little fingers cover her rosy lips.

When her mirth passes, Meliodas flushes warm as he gets the rest of his lunch out. Sliced apples and peanut butter to dip them. He grins, remembering a happy memory from their childhood where the two had worked together on a class experiment where they took turns wearing a blindfold and giving the other directions to make a sandwich.

The chair beside Meliodas is pulled back, then flipped around. He turns, expecting Diane as she joined them from time to time. Instead, its a face he did not know. A boy with sandy brown hair, a square face and overly large shoulders. His jersey gave him away as a football player and he leers at Elizabeth with a cocky grin, he's a boy used to getting what he desires. That notion becomes apparent to Meliodas when he opens his mouth.

"You are far too pretty to sit with this fuck up." The underclassman says, his chin jutting forward toward Elizabeth. Meliodas does not disagree with his words but hates them anyways. "Come sit with us, my lap is free." The boy settles into the chair and waves a hand over the front of his pants. Due to the angle and being so close, Meliodas notices the boy is semi hard through his basketball shorts and glowers, fists forming over the tabletop. "I'm Alioni. The pleasure is all yours." His puts his hand over his heart.

Elizabeth though, she holds up one of her pretty fingers for them to wait. She gets her rainbow paper and a pencil to scratch a note. The girl rips it free, folds it in half and gives it to the football player. Alioni takes it with a grin, thinking it's her phone number but his face pales and he turns to Meliodas. "Deaf? But she's got ears." The kid says, genuinely confused.

"And you've got a brain and obviously don't use that," Meliodas says with a shrug and a grin. Elizabeth giggles but tries to stop herself when Alioni looks to her with wide eyes before it registers that Meliodas has insulted him.

"I'd still tap that. I can say what I want and you won't have a clue, will ya?" Alioni grins over to his table two rows down and gives a thumbs up to his boys. Elizabeth catches what he said, her face paling as she grows afraid. She's dealt with these types of boys before and she refuses to have history repeat itself. Meliodas though, he knows what she looks like when she's scared, it amps up his drive to protect her and when Alioni turns back saying "Listen, oh right, you can't-"

Meliodas stands, his chair scratching along the tile and echoing in the large room, it interrupts Alioni. The footballer does not ignore the challenge and his chair is tipped back when he stands, the metal slamming to the ground. Alioni throws the first punch, and Meliodas dips back out of its way, moving from the table to keep the budding fight away from Elizabeth. Alioni lets another slow fist fly and it wooshes through the air over Meliodas head as he ducks. "What, you think you're the only one that can mack on her? She's hot an-"

Meliodas fights back, cutting off his words. He tackles the large kid to the ground, slamming his head into the floor as he grapples him before rearing back and cracking the kid in the jaw. Blood pops from his lip and Alioni spits it at Meliodas, the spray misting him with gore. They scramble, elbows jabbing and knuckles cracking against flesh. Students scatter and screams echo in the lunchroom. The two ignore them all, until one voice calls out and reaches Meliodas so deep he feels her inside.

"Stahp!" Her voice is beautiful. The lad had not lied, he loves her voice. It's breathy and soft and unlike any other sound he's heard. It does have an accent. As if she's speaking underwater but it doesn't matter one iota to him and Meliodas does stop. He's atop the footballer, takes a punch to the gut with minimal response as he stands, walking over Alioni with little regard. Meliodas knows where to look and finds her in the crowd with ease.

With the back of his sleeve he wipes at his face and grins like a fool at her. She flushes prettily under his attention. He signs to her, "You're beautiful." Elizabeth looks away, overwhelmed at the sudden violence and the sudden shift in Meliodas. She catches the looks he's getting from the others and tries to catch the words from the shape of their lips as they are whispering to one another. A few she knows first hand "freak" and "berserk".

She pushes her way around the fallen chairs and a few spectators. A teacher yells "stay back!" but Elizabeth can't hear a word. She remembers a little rough boy in elementary school who did not have any friends, who had been picked on just as much as she had been. Up to now, she had hoped the kids here had taken the time to get to know Meliodas but with their backs turning on him, she knows none of them have changed. She believes that all those years ago, when her father pulled her from school, that she had abandoned Meliodas to suffer their fate alone. Elizabeth thinks it's her fault that Meliodas endured on his own among the assholes and the apathetic.

Kids, and teenagers especially, they have a hard time processing complex issues. Especially for the students who partook in the bullying of both Elizabeth and Meliodas. A lot of them remember their involvement differently than it truly had been. Memories change, perceptions change. In their minds, open taunts became secret whispers to friends, hurting another for a laugh became a mutual 'fight' and for their own self-image to endure what they have done, they embrace their own cognitive dissonance.

Elizabeth notices, in her short time back, that Meliodas is ignored by their old bullies, the harshest perpetrators. She believes, fairly accurately, that it is because they can't accept him as a person, that they need him to be unlike them. 'I am weak, it makes sense why they hate me and ignore me, but Meliodas is determined and opposite of all my failings.'

She reaches him just as a fellow footballer yanks Alioni up to his feet. Elizabeth embraces Meliodas, pressing her body to his and tucking his face to her cheek. His arms wrap around her center and to him she smells like summer days and faintly like fresh cut apples. Elizabeth remembers being the only one able to calm him when he would rage in elementary school but immediately she can tell a difference. He isn't out of control, 'he doesn't need me'. With the thought, she steps back embarrassed she embraced him when he has obviously evolved beyond her. Yet, Elizabeth feels like she's still the same nervous little girl.

A foot apart, the two stare at one another, neither hearing the whispers and speculations. With the teachers approach, the lunch room begins returning to normal.

"Follow me." Mr. Hawk says, taking Meliodas by the shoulder. The lad gives Elizabeth a sheepish grin while the teacher tells hers. "go back to your table." The girl submits, stepping backward but does not turn, instead, she watches after them. Meliodas is looking at her over his shoulder while being led away until the cafeteria wall comes between them

Elizabeth returns to their table, righting the chairs when her watch vibrates that the bell is going to ring. She gathers up their things shoving notepads in his bag, repacks his lunch and when she picks up his backpack she marvels at the weight of it. In her rush, she does not realize she put her personal journal in his bag.

Meliodas is sitting in the office infront of the assistant who usually unlocks the front doors for Elizabeth and him in the early A.M's. The woman is pointedly ignoring him when its usually nice smiles in the morning. A few other students are waiting outside the glass doors of the Principals office as well. A girl and a boy holding hands and whispering to another are in the seat over and Meliodas rolls his eyes knowing they must have been caught hooking up somewhere.

To distract himself from his worry of Elizabeth on her own among the hormone-crazed, he looks over the drab divider between the students and workers. Bolted to the front of it are clear plastic holders with colorful pamphlets with various issues in bold at the top of each. 'Suicide', 'Safe Sex', 'Pregnancy' and a slew of other teen problems. A phone rings and the receptionist opposite the assistant answers in a high pitched fake voice.

Alioni is released, giving Meliodas a shrugging 'whatever' grin as he goes, in an attempt to avoid a rematch with him. This wasn't Alioni's first call into the office for fighting but he is a budding athlete and the position did come with some protection. This boy knows fights and the one he had with Meliodas is by far his toughest. Alioni is concealing his limp, his jaw is sore and his lip still burns while Meliodas didn't look a bit affected.

He isn't. Meliodas handles fights. He used to live for them but now its something he falls back on when it's required.

Meliodas checks the clock as the other students are called in and dismissed until he's the only one left. He doesn't have his pack, his phone had been in the inside pocket and Meliodas' mood sours deeper with each minute that passes. The principle is on the phone, he can see the graying, dark man rubbing at his own forehead, elbow resting on his paper covered, messy wooden desk. Each of the old blue cush chairs on this side of the desk are stained and on their last limb.

After he hangs up, the man waves Meliodas in and he looks disappointed. The lad rubs a hand through his hair, feeling something similar to contrition. Meliodas knows what's holding the principal up. He opens the glass door to the separate office and takes a seat in the sagging chair. "I tried your mother a few times. Your father twice before I called his listed work number at the hospital."

"Did he answer?" Meliodas asks and the mans face pinches, his brown eyes shifting away from Meliodas' face. "What'd he say?" The principal's full lips press together into a line and the man shakes his head as if he cannot repeat the words. "Can I go?" The lad is hopeful but the Principal is a man who knows what it's like to struggle, he has not given up on helping those he feels needs it.

"I heard you've been looking out for the deaf girl." The principle answers, trying to build a connection but his phrasing nips at Meliodas ire. "The boy I knew two years ago would not have volunteered to help another, you are growing up." Meliodas does not respond, thinking 'even two years ago, if it were for Elizabeth, I would have.'

The principal releases Meliodas with a week of detention telling him, "to be served during lunch as you have an after school job, and it also separates you from Alioni." The Principle thinks he is helping Meliodas but he would prefer to serve after school, as lunch detention cuts into his time with Elizabeth. The lad rushes back to class, so eager the principal thinks the student must care about his education and feels good about his leniency.

Meliodas enters their Home Economics class with searching eyes. He finds Elizabeth, who looks just as relieved to see him while sitting in her usual seat with his bag beside hers. His steps pause on his way to her, thinking she is an angel for taking care of his stuff. 'She's somehow gotten more beautiful since I've seen her last. I can't take it.'

Mr. Waillo asks him where he's been, interrupting his longing. "Principal's office." He answers flippantly. The short and stout teacher touches his mustache in contemplation, waving him to his seat and returning to his lesson on credit cards. The title of the presentation is "It's not free money", which Meliodas finds fitting. He takes his seat, pulling out a notebook without looking and signs to Elizabeth.

"You spoke." He says with a smile and she's shy about it. "Talk more, to me, please." Elizabeth looks away, a doodle on her page where there should have been notes. After a moment she writes on her paper and slides it over to him.

-How much trouble are you in?- Meliodas has his own pencils but takes hers to touch the back of her hand with his thumb in a little caress.

-Lunch detention, a week. I can handle it.- She reads it, moving closer to him and her scent washes over him, intoxicating him.

Meliodas is a little out of it as he looks over her curves and automatically thinks of his early morning shows through her window. He isn't listening to Mr. Waillo when he calls on their table to read the next section of the handout about 'interest rates'. The teacher scolds, directing him to where he needs to read and a few of the students make jeers. At his side, a boy says, "Together, they are deaf and dumb."

Meliodas reads the section, Elizabeth flushes hot and personally embarrassed that she may one day read out loud to her peers when she is self conscious about her voice. She is grateful for Meliodas and when he is finished reading the paragraph and the speaking falls to someone else, Elizabeth asks him "what did they say?" motioning over to the classmates.

"Nothing." Meliodas signs, not looking her in the eyes. Her gratitude fades as ire takes its place.

"Don't do that." Elizabeth signs and Meliodas is intelligent enough to realize she is upset. He is not sure why but knows he must have done something. At his confusion, Elizabeth continues, "I miss conversations, I know others talk behind my back and I read lips okay but it's guess work most of the time so when I ask, I don't do it to waste your time! Don't push me aside like everyone else!" Elizabeth is flush in anger, shining eyes narrow but her lips quiver.

He knows she's right, he raises his hands to tell her their insults but she turns away from him shoulders angled down and her hair fans around her face to block him out. Meliodas watches her angrily tapping her pencil on her paper. He wonders how many times in life she's asked what was going on and been told 'later' or 'don't worry about it' and he realizes how frustrating that is. He taps her arm but she's salty, scooting herself over and away from him.

Their school day ends with Elizabeth's coldness easing just enough for a "see you tomorrow morning" sign as she walks with Diane toward their homes and away from him. Meliodas watches her go, staring for so long. He draws the attention of some of their classmates and they call out to him "Whatcha looking at, Melio?" and "They are asses worth staring at." Meliodas turns and heads home before 'Chandler and friends' reach him in the quad.

.X X X.

Meliodas watches her dress and when she comes out with another paper bag lunch for him, he apologizes. Their texts had reduced to zero yesterday night and Meliodas struggled without her as a life line. It stood as a reminder of what his years without her have been like, dull and aching, but Meliodas learns quickly from her flavor of negative reinforcement. She controls the monopoly on her and she is the only person, thing and soul he wants, so he plans to avoid any action that takes her from him.

All through the halls and at their desks, Meliodas interprets everything he hears. From random gossip in the hall, to the sound lockers make and what others were talking about around them. Midway through their second block Psychology Elizabeth laughs as he tells her what the girl behind her says to her friend about Mr. Helbram. "Stop." She signs with a tender smile and Meliodas grins, winningly as he is certain he's worn his way back into her good favors.

When her watch glows and buzzes a blink before the bell goes off, Meliodas frowns. Detention, time away from her. The punishment is unacceptable, as to him it did not match the crime. To lose over an hour of his daily down time with Elizabeth for the next five days of school, it truly made him not want to defend himself next time. 'I'll just take the beating rather than risk missing her.' Her eyes look endless in their sorrow when he walks her to the lunch room and they say their goodbyes.

Meliodas is the first to arrive in the detention room. Mr. Twigo is overseeing punishments, his lunch of cold pizza in an off-colored plastic container before him as he watches something on his phone screen with a goofy grin. Meliodas takes a middle seat at the back of the class and pulls out his lunch. Elizabeth had drawn blue flowers on the brown paper and he smiles at them before he unrolls the top.

The lad thinks he's to serve his lunch detention alone until, at the same time as the bell shrills through the air, the door opens and in walks Ban. A lanky lad in Meliodas' homeroom, and the second name on his list of sins. Meliodas looks the tall fellow over. He bends to get his head in the door, his dark pants are a touch too short for him and the black wife beater under his red leather jacket has a hole in the hip at the hemline. His hair is white, close to Elizabeth's, but with spikes shooting up around him and his pale face looks over to Meliodas without much reaction. The scar on his jaw is jagged. It healed much nicer than Meliodas had expected when he gave it to him.

The lanky lad looks over at Meliodas and the pair share a look. Ban, with his brows high gives Meliodas a once over before smiling sadly and taking a seat in the front corner of the room. The lad isn't sure what to do with the look, he interprets it as semi-friendly but their past is too disjointed to be certain.

"I have you both for the rest of the week. Be quiet or I'll add to your sentence." Mr. Twigo speaks to the pair of them as if they are in prison and Meliodas resists rolling his eyes to Ban in companionable ridiculousness. Instead, he pulls out a notebook at random to put beside his paper lunch and notices that Ban unrolls a novel from his leather coat. He's had that red leather thing since he moved here in middle school.

Meliodas and Ban, back in the day, had been friends as they both share a commonality. Their parents are shitboxes. Ban moved here as he'd been placed in foster care to a single man who had recently lost his own son. Meliodas knew this, as Ban had shared with him and the thoughts swirl in Meliodas' mind as he pulls the sandwich from the sack. His chest tightens when he sees his sweet Elizabeth has cut a heart shape in the middle. A cookie cutter press affects him more than it should.

Each bite of his lunch thaws the ice in his belly until it's gone.

The lad does not have much work to do but plucks a pencil from his bag before he notices the plastic cover of the notebook before him. All of his are the cheap paper kind. 'How did Elizabeth's notebook end up in my backpack?'

The lad is about to return it to his bag when he sees a page marked with a pencil shoved into the sparkly plastic binding spring. Curious, he opens the book to the first few pages, seeing recipes are written out, lists of things to do and notes about her life making Meliodas conclude this is a journal of sorts. He reads her views on her sisters moving away. She's alone a lot, per her somber words. Meliodas thinks of his own brother and his heart goes out to her. He himself had been upset with Zeldris when he'd left him behind.

He opens to where the pencil is shoved and the title jolts him into focused attention. She had told him he inspired her but had been so embarrassed when he asked to see it. He read 'Bucket list- Things to do before I die'. Meliodas' interest is maxed, glad to be he privy to her goals. The list is short, lovely, and he smiles at the letters, reading them with a little smile.

-Ride a bike

-See the ocean

-Dance to an audience

-Make a friend

-Go on a date

-Have memorable sex

The last item on her list makes Meliodas double take, reading the words, twice and then a third time in disbelief. His head shakes, his locks dance on his head. 'She's had sex she did not remember or sex so bad she wanted an experience that's nice to recall?' A strange sensation spreads through Meliodas, not jealousy as she's stunning so it is natural others have been interested, but of worry. He chews on his bottom lip, pencil rubber tapping at his white front teeth as he tries to figure out her words.

To him, no matter what, she's the epitome of perfect. If she's going from man to man in an attempt to find good sex, then that's her prerogative, Meliodas thinks, but he knows that isn't what she is doing. A stray, nagging thought invades his mind and he shakes it out. 'I can't taint her, I can't touch her... but what if she wants me to accomplish her last item on her list?'

Meliodas sits in a daze of his own speculations. He raises his pencil and makes a mark beside 'make a friend' before he stops, this is her list and he does not feel he has a right to cross something off. The lad pulls at his hair with fisting hands, reading the list over again.

If the lad simply turns the page, he will have something much more alarming to panic over, but he doesn't. When detention is over he keeps the notebook out, the page still marked to talk to Elizabeth next class. Life isn't that simple though. As Ban dips out the teacher takes Meliodas by the shoulder. He guides Meliodas to the boy's locker room himself because the teacher believes he needs to persuade Meliodas to rejoin any of the upcoming sports teams he used to play in. Couch Twigo is unsuccessful in his attempts at recruitment.

Inside the locker room, Meliodas shoves Elizabeth's notebook in his bag and changes into the provided nylon clothes in a rush. He's already dressed by the time some other male students start to trickle in. One of them is Ban and in a hurry, he nods to his old friend, who gives Meliodas a small one back but in his rush to get to Elizabeth he doesn't see the gesture. Out in the gym where there are scuff marks on the open dull floor, the bell rings. His curses out loud as she'll be in the locker room now, beyond his reach.

He just wants her to think of him as a friend, to know she has one in the world, someone she can rely on.

'Not for long though,' Meliodas thinks, his suicide plans fracturing. 'What if I dedicate my life to making hers better? In any capacity she will allow? I could see her through college, she has the brains for it. Beyond that, we could face it all together...' But the lad knows his thoughts are unfair. It is not up to Elizabeth to make his life bearable. The fact that she does, passively and naturally, is a blessing to him but the burden is not hers. He scolds his own hopeful thoughts. The seed drops into his mind though, the idea taking root. 'I can live to protect her'.

Meliodas waits impatiently for Elizabeth, tapping the toes of his rough sneakers adding to the scuffs on the Gymnasium floor. A few other ladies come out in their swishy clothes and they look Meliodas over with mild dislike before her bright form emerges on her own a few breaths later. He goes to her, hands moving quickly as he explains his detention with Ban, but she takes his hands to stop him.

"That's good." She signs after her delicate flesh brushes over the calluses on his fingers. "I was thinking, you should write a letter to the others on your list, like you did for me. With Ban in detention with you, it is a great place to start again." Meliodas is torn then, to follow her conversation or to tell her about her notebook he found in his bag. "Your words are... beyond just words." She giggles and he cannot look away from her joyous face, his thoughts scattering. Her chin arches and he watches the curve of her neck, his eyes dipping to her little collar bones. "I'll help you," she offers as Couch Twigo blows his whistle.

Meliodas interprets the sound and she looks over, heading that way with a comfortable smile to him. They stand among the other chittering students at one end of the open space. Twigo starts explaining dodgeball rules a wheeled crate of balls before him.

Meliodas asks if she needs the rules of dodgeball explained and she waves it away. With a weary look, he signs to her, "Your notebook was in my bag." Her head tilts curiously and he gives her a sad smile, "I saw your bucket list." Her face pales, her plump lips parting and her pink tongue pokes out to wet her lips. He notices it all, even her breathing that causes her bosom to jump.

"Only the list?" She asks, stepping to him as if whispering her signs. It is for naught as no one else in the class knew a lick of her language. Her hands move so fast he can't keep up and he asks her to go slow but she's upset. He fears he's made her angry. He looked in her book when he shouldn't have but her eyes fill with tears and he knows then she is explaining something, pleadingly, he just does not know what.

"Stop." He signs, full of worry as her expression is desperate. "I want to talk about your list." But the students were lining up as two 'team leaders' stand at either side of Twigo. "They are dividing up players, I don't know what you were signing, you move so fast," he takes her elbow to guide her into a better position to blend in with the other students. "Elizabeth," her sign-name is an e trailing down his head like long hair, "I am your friend. I will be at your side for as long as you allow." Meliodas vows, her blue eyes leak, spilling over.

He takes her hand in his, holding it in comfort and giving her little digits a squeeze as the students around them thin. "I know." She signs one-handed before squeezing his warm palm and slipping it free to move it with grace around her saying, "I am sorry I left you in Elementary school. I didn't want to, I am the one that failed our friendship." The lad is startled, his back straightening as her plump bottom lip quivers.

The lads name is called and he scowls over at the team that chose him for dodgeball. "Mark it off on your list. I'm your friend." Meliodas signs fast then telling her he's been picked for a team, "Watch me and I'll tell you when you're picked too." Elizabeth touches his bicep, wanting to go with him, to talk to him about the other things on her list, to explain, but she realizes as he walks backward away from her, to keep his eyes on her, that he doesn't know. 'He only read the list', she thinks and her heart rate regulates as she stares at him, wanting her notebook back.

The two were on opposite teams but Elizabeth does not want to play and takes a ball to the hip so she can stand on the sidelines. A moment later, Meliodas joins her and Couch Twigo hollers at him for not catching the obvious toss. In this game, when you catch a ball, you get a player returned from the sidelines so the two never got to talk long but each little break they took together Meliodas further explains being her friend. Elizabeth tells him to give her the notebook back, that she'll cross it off.

"I'm glad I have you, Meliodas." Elizabeth tells him, his sign name is an M to her heart. The young woman hopes Meliodas will be something else to her. When she made the list, she thought of it as a girlfriend, for sleepovers and grabbing expensive coffee together, but what she has with Meliodas can count too. 'It bothers him, so I will cross it off.' She's grateful he does not mention the sex goal, but wonders if its because he doesn't want that relationship with her. 'Maybe friends is all he wants.'

Elizabeth is not sure of herself, doubts come to her easily, old companions to her worry and woe.

Meliodas returns her notebook as soon as they meet outside the lockers and she opens it, so he can see, and crosses out friends with finality. She smiles, a rare, true smile and Meliodas feels as if he spends an entire lifetime in that moment. A tiny infinite universe where he is buoyant in her joy, glad to be here for it, glad he has a hand in sparking it. She closes her notebook and tucks it over her chest, folding her arms around it. Meliodas knows he would trade his soul to be that notebook pressed so close to her and to be held so protectively.

With Mr. Hawk lecturing about sentence structure, the two take notes until they are given work to deconstruct sentences. The two work together, him from bottom up and her from the top down so when they meet in the middle they can copy the others answers, while double checking the others work. It's done in half the time and after, Elizabeth immediately asks to help with his letter to Ban.

"How did you start my letter?" Elizabeth asks, "we can brainstorm."

"I wrote your letter about eight or nine times before I felt it was right." Meliodas admits "I'm not doing that for Ban, I owe you more than I can give, I don't have a way to make it up to you but with this-"

"No!" Elizabeth interrupts, her hands stopping his. Her thoughts roll on top of one another in a swirl of chaos before she shakes her head, her tresses dancing in the sunlight and Meliodas catches her fresh scent. "Mark me off your list." She demands, she feels it's only fair as she did it for him. Meliodas stares, her blue eyes capturing him and he thinks in this moment his soul is already claimed. It is no longer his to trade.

"When I make it all up to you." He promises her, knowing he never can. She accepts the answer, telling him with slow hands "Soon".

At the end of the school day, Diane meets them at their locker and the pigtail girl tries to sign but she needs so much correction she gives up. Meliodas uses his language skills daily, he's become rather good, but Elizabeth still teaches him words and signs slowly for him to fully understand. Elizabeth does not mind as she feels happy they both learn for her.

Diane asks what each of their plans are after school. Meliodas tells them work, while Elizabeth tells them about her dancing. She signs it and Diane does not need him to interpret. He feels like a third wheel but Elizabeth notices, telling him "I'm going to change grocery stores, because of you." He smiles, he is still happy when the two walk off together.

When football starts up in September, Diane will not be able to walk part way home with Elizabeth due to practice and Meliodas hopes by then, she asks him too. 'I'll offer, maybe I can make up a reason to be going that way. Everyday.' He strolls home.

His father is home, a different kind of pounding happening inside his house so the lad goes to his brothers, spending the time before work helping around Zeldris' shop. He is invited to stay the night and the lad accepts, his phone alarm already set for such an occasion.

That night, in his brother's spare bedroom, Meliodas knocks one off to the thought of Elizabeth dressing through her window, to the remembered scent of her hair and to the lovely curve of her collar bone and swell of her breasts. He knows his imagination does not do her justice but this is all he will allow himself to have.

He's eager for his morning show, is standing outside her house early, the morning air refreshing and exciting with the prospect of what's to come. The curtain shifts, the lights turn on and there is his beauty. Today is different, music starts, so loud he can hear it on the sidewalk but his thoughts on the matter scatter as she dances. Her nightgown is tossed over her shoulder, her legs part and she's bouncing. 'What is she standing on for her to move like that?' he thinks but a door slams behind him and he turns, caught. An old woman with a clear plastic cap over her hair scowls at him as her tiny old dog pants with the effort it takes to reach her front yard. The old woman shoos the lad but he points to Elizabeth's house in explanation. The old woman looks through the girl's window and her disapproval double overs on itself. "Peeper!" She yells and Meliodas pulls out his phone, texting Elizabeth that he's here.

"I'm waiting for her," Meliodas explains, flushing hot as he is guilty and the old woman settles herself on her porch to monitor the situation with skeptical eyes. When he turns back, the lights are off in her room and for a few agonizing moments the old woman burns her gaze into his back. The lad can feel its intensity, he shifts his shoulders, moves his feet but the feeling of being unwelcome in such a nice neighborhood spreads through him.

The lad knows he doesn't belong here, he is a delinquent on the fringes of her goodness. His heart shutters, his stomach flops and a headache forms as he demands himself not to fuck up her life. Meliodas knows that he hasn't the strength of will to deny her anything she wants, so he must make sure he isn't one of those things. He dismisses the notion easily as he thinks 'I needn't worry, someone like her could never want someone like me.'

Elizabeth steals his breath like she does every day he sees her. He watches her, catching the slip of tummy flesh as she waves to him from her porch. He's stunned, he does not respond. She's handing him a paper sack lunch with little hearts and stars hand drawn on it and Meliodas can't help but look at her offering with warmth. They walk in companionable silence, but are 'talking' the entire time.

The morning flies by. They work on Ban's letter together. Elizabeth reads it when it is finished and declares it perfect. Her smile in this moment, reminds him of his brothers when he had read Elizabeth's letter, worlds apart but holding the same emotions. The lad is still torn up from the sight. In detention, when Meliodas has his lunch sitting before him in his regular seat, Ban strolls in. The lad doesn't prolong the anxiety, he stands with the folded up piece of paper and walks over to Ban's tall form bent into his seat by the door with an open novel in his grip.

Meliodas stops at the side of his desk and the spikey haired Ban looks him over, not unfriendly. The scar at his old friend jaw is prominent on his face and Meliodas frowns it at, remembering the rage he have given himself to when he slammed into his friends face. Over what? A thing? Something worthless compared to the friendship he lost that day.

"I'm sorry, really, about your face and not being man enough to deal with it, after." Meliodas scowls at his awkwardness, setting the paper on Ban's desk. He sits up in his seat, Ban is surprised because to him, he felt as if he is the one that owes Meliodas an apology. He reaches forward with long fingers, taking the paper and glides it closer to himself.

"Nah, man, I pushed you too far. You asked me not to and I-" Ban starts but Mr. Twigo's heavy fist hits his desk, alerting them both.

"One rule! You earned yourself another lunch with me Meliodas. Detention. is. quiet." Immediately Meliodas scowls, drops of anger running hot down his spine but he clenches his fists and returns to his desk. Another lunch away from Elizabeth cements the rule for him and he is quiet as he opens his sack. Inside, the food is cute, a little face is even drawn on the hardboiled egg. His emotions mellow, filling up on the nice sensations that accompany the food, while also filling his belly with her careful preparations for him. Meliodas eats everything, even the little crumbs.

Vaguely, he wishes he had her notebook just to read her handwriting. Then, he reprimands himself for not having anything else in his life. He begins thinking again of the pros and cons of departing, wondering if he should branch out and return to the things he used to love. 'I told Elizabeth she can rely on me. I'll make sure she can.'

Meliodas packs his things, having clock-watched most of his time here. He stood with his trash by the door and just as the bell rings, he tosses his stuff and dips out. The lad hopes Mr. Twigo has forgotten about his extra detention, the teacher did not give him a slip for it. He simply wants to be free to find Elizabeth. The lad worries about her on her own, but he needn't have. She and Diane are signing about a weekend trip to a store when he spots them. Diane calls out excitedly for him and she pulls Elizabeth by her wrist to meet him in the middle.

Meliodas has his eyes on Elizabeth, he doesn't notice until it's too late that Diane sidelines him in a hug, his face presses obscenely between her breasts. Diane squeals excited but Elizabeth and Meliodas flush uncomfortably hot. Meliodas detaches as quickly as possible, Elizabeth looks away before she notices his actions. "Bye guys, see ya in English." Diane giggles, waving at Meliodas as she turns down a hall away from them.

The two aren't looking at one another, standing frozen still until an aggressive voice rings out "Meliodas!" The lad identifies the voice and straightens, looking for the tall frame of Ban over the moving heads. A friend has not called out to him in months and it awakens the old Meliodas' playful side.

"Ban!" He hollers back, just as combative. Ban parts through the crowd and Meliodas raises his fists, prepared for impact when Ban's long arms smack out to him. The two block, dodge and slap one another hands in a mock battle, scaring a few other students to back away in alarm, yelling about a 'fight'. The two devolve into an embrace of grins before Ban grapples him by picking him up and Meliodas allows it.

Ban speaks to the top of Meliodas' messy head. "I'm sorry about pushing you too far, back then it had been a problem of mine. Seems we've both grown up some, eh?" Meliodas slips from the hold, as he shrugs off the apology with a 'no worries' smile to his old friend. He notices then, out of the corner of his eye, Elizabeth's worrying expression with her hands clasping before her chest looking so pretty. He goes to her, the few steps between them gone as the hall thins.

"I'm glad." She signs.

"My little sister used to be deaf." Ban says, and when Meliodas looks, he's signing. "Meliodas volunteered but I would have been your note helper if this asshole hadn't spoken up." Ban gives Meliodas a knowing grin, signing bye but talking as he turns his back to them. "You used to say her name in your sleep when you'd stay over the weekend. I'm glad your girl's back." Meliodas flushes hot but Elizabeth doesn't hear but looks thrilled, still stuck on Ban signing to her.

"He knows sign language!" Elizabeth's excitement is short lived as she asks, "Did his sister get cochlear implants?" She is unable to look at Meliodas in the eye with Diane's breasts still a fresh memory. She asks because she wonders how his sister 'used to be deaf' and implants seem the most reasonable explanation.

"She died." Meliodas signs, studying the side of Elizabeth's face as it falls, her eyes fill with liquid crystals as they shine. "Remember how I told you Ban went into foster care, moved here after you left? He was taken from his home because of what happened to his sister. He was placed with a really good man. Must still be with him, since he's still here."

The two make it through Gym and after English, where Meliodas steers clear of Diane, the pair are back to their normal selves with one another. Meliodas actually flinches when Diane comes to Elizabeth's desk after the lecture is over. Elizabeth giggles and Meliodas watches her eyes sparkle, liking how they look best when joy is there. 'Why is this sight rare? I need to make her happy more often.'

"I can't walk with you today. Maybe walk a block up to avoid the middle school?" Diane tells her. She switches to sign to fumble through "I have to leave- go to first practice." Elizabeth fixes her signs and Diane moves her hands correctly with a grin. "You'll watch the games right? I'm the only girl on the team. They had to let me on as we don't have a lady equivalent." Elizabeth agrees and Diane hangs around them both for a few moments until Guila calls her over and she heads that way. Her wave to Meliodas is flirtatious but no one notices it as Meliodas and Elizabeth lean into one another.

"Why do you avoid the middle school?" Meliodas asks. The girl ignores his question with a little swoosh of her hand through the air.

"Meliodas." She signs, "Would you like to come over after school? Both my sisters are home, you can meet them. My dad won't be home until 6, I know you have to work at 5 but for a little while, you can even see my room." Elizabeth is hopeful, thinking this is the moment she'll know if he's interested. The young woman feels a little rushed and desperate with Diane making her move.

For a moment Meliodas feels as if fate is answering his own desires to walk her home. He nods, smiling nervously and turning from her to stare down at his notebook. The lad both fears and hopes she wants him to meet her family as an introduction to something more between them. He tries to squash the thought but it forms, solid and dark. 'I'll taint her' he warns himself but when he looks at her again in her pale glory, he thinks 'nothing can tarnish her, though. She'll always be this bright.'

The two visit lockers, waiting for the other and Elizabeth pulls his notebook from his metal storage unit to flip to his sins list. "Mark Ban off." She demands and after a moment to find a pencil, he does. "Me too." Elizabeth continues, pointing to her name expectantly with an adorable eyebrow raise. He ignores her second demand, taking the book from her grip and returning it to its place. With a swoop, his bag is on his back and he slams the locker door shut.

"Let's go." He tells her and on their way, with the pair walking side by side, Elizabeth wishes she were brave enough to take his hand. The lad has similar urges, he thinks about her smooth palm in his rough one but he clenches his fists before starting a conversation about her sisters. He asks if he needs to know anything and Elizabeth grins a new smile, a loving one with a hint of mischief as she explains what type of people they both are. They are before her house when she finishes. "So, very different. I hope I prepared you."

He opens her gate, she gets her keys out and they are side by side as they walk her stone path through her front yard, across her porch and to her door. The metal jangles as she finds her key but the door opens before she inserts it into the lock. She smiles wide, grinning with the radiance of the sun as a light-blue haired girl steps out of the house and embraces Elizabeth. Meliodas assesses accurately that this sister must be the eldest, home from college for the week.

When they separate they sign furiously. He watches between the two before giving up and finding himself content to simply see the different animated faces Elizabeth makes. Brows pinched together and nose crinkling as her pretty features change to wide eyes and round mouth as if completely taken aback. After a moment, she points to the lad and her sister's brown eyes focus on him with a pleasant smile.

"I've heard much about you." Margaret confesses with a pleasant, rich voice. They shake hands and the boy wonders why it's so much easier to touch her hand. 'It means more with Elizabeth, that's all.'

"I could say the same." Meliodas signs as he talks, "Elizabeth misses you while you are away." He tells her and the sisters share a look. The lad is shown inside. Her house smells so much nicer than his, fresh with food cooking in the air. Her living room is open, clean and is free of random naked flesh laying on her black three cushion couch. The walls are tan, the decor is tasteful and Meliodas spots a stairway with a nice stained wood railing.

Elizabeth puts her bag down on a bench behind the front door and offers to take his, but he puts his down on the ground before hers to save her from the weight of it. "I can give you a tour." Elizabeth offers but through an archway that obviously led to a kitchen, he spots a long dining table and a breakfast bar parallel its side, a woman's voice calls out. Margaret signs an interpretation to Elizabeth before Meliodas gets the chance.

"Veronica needs us to take over cooking," Margaret signs to her, but what she tells Elizabeth that is not what Veronica had said. Meliodas grins wryly as Margaret leads a concerned Elizabeth to the kitchen. The older sister catches his expression but rather than be put off with his daring she finds it endearing. Margaret tells him over her shoulder "good luck" in a whisper and Elizabeth signs to him "I'll be right back," before signing much faster to her sister.

'She has been signing slow for me.' Meliodas realizes just as a short brown haired girl with a much flatter chest than her sisters stomps over to him intimidatingly. Her brown eyes narrow, her arms cross and she looks Meliodas over with a cruel dismissing glance and a flip of her hair. "I remember you from elementary school. Margaret was too old but not me."

It's all he needs to hear to know he isn't welcome. His shoulders droop, pain pinches at the back of his eyes and he feels like he can't breathe. Veronica looks at him like he is old vomit on her new combat boots but Meliodas does not blame her. The lad rubs at his chest, and he sees her notice the hole in his jeans, her condemnation grows visibly on her face.

"If you are using my sister to alleviate your own guilt, you can fuck off right now." She hisses, low and angry. "That letter means nothing to me. She would come home crying half the time, your constant flip flopping had her messed up. To this day she lets people hurt her and I blame you for planting the seed that its okay for people to-" Veronica cuts herself off, her eyes welling. Meliodas grows stark, his eyes wide and his hands come up to pull at his hair much harsher than his usual habit.

"I, uh." Meliodas starts, while thinking his motivation for being in her life does stem from his selfish desire to redeem himself. 'Am I using her, again?' The waves of his wrath thrash, a cold shiver edging down his spine. "I want to protect her." He declares, strands of his hair breaking from his strong tugs through them and he digs his nails into his palms as painfully as he can. "I know I was a fucked up kid but I want to be better, for her or because of her... She's..." But Meliodas trails off as the person they are both talking about enters the room with her shoulders back, her determined face on.

Elizabeth looks like a vengeful angel as she descends on Veronica with resolve. Her sister turns from Meliodas and the two sign as fast as he's ever seen. For a moment, with the silent argument erupting between the sisters, Meliodas basks in the feeling of being lost while others talk around him. 'Is this how she feels, when people talk too fast or turn their backs? She knows what's going on but not what the details are.'

Veronica's words did a number on him and he wants to leave. To walk his way back to where he belongs. In his dilapidated home on the bad side of town with his fucked up family. He fears he is using Elizabeth but at that moment the beautiful young lady spins from her sister in a huff, takes Meliodas hand in hers as if it is no big deal and leads him to the stairs. Elizabeth's grip is strong and his thumb moves on its own across her flesh, to feel the satin of her skin against his.

The brown haired sister groans, loudly, turning back to the kitchen telling Margaret "She's impossible! What can she see in him?" Meliodas and Elizabeth are across the living room and on the steps, her footfalls quiet and he mirrors her as he follows her up the wooden rungs.

"I like him," Margaret replies, intentionally loud enough for Meliodas to hear. "Not many people will face their own demons." The lad had not thought of his actions in such a positive way before and the thought is dismissed. He is more inclined to believe Veronica's rendition and perception.

"He is a demon!" Veronica answers and Meliodas agrees with the assessment, adding it to his personal descriptors.

In the hall, it's picture after picture of her family. The one in the center has, who he assumes, is her mother but the others are all of just the three girls and their father. Some of them are of the lot of them in matching clothes, obviously posed professionally and a few are selfies at the beach where he tilts his head to stare at Elizabeth's exposed body as long as possible with her pulling him along.

Up on the second floor, there are doors on either side of the walls. At the end of the hall a window is set that looks out to the house next door. Meliodas guesses correctly which door is hers, from staring through her window each morning and knowing which way the street is. She pulls him in, lets go of his hand and shuts the door softly behind her. He looks around, trying to soak up as much of her as he can.

Elizabeth has a net of stuffed animals arranged in an upper corner of her room, her dresser is messily overflowing, her middle drawer isn't shut and a chaos of clothes are inside. Her floor is scattered with things, he spots a pair of panties and flushes at the lacey things before looking to her unmade bed. Its positioned under her window and the boy frowns.

Her window is not the full length of her wall as he assumed. From the street angle, she must dress while standing on her bed each day. No wonder she could bounce so well that time she danced. Meliodas flushes, stepping around her belongings and noting how colorful her things are. 'I'm surrounded with her,' he thinks as he breathes in a deep breath of her scents.

She touches his arm and he turns to see her. Her cheeks are pink, a little endearing smile on her face as she apologizes for her sister. "Did I warn you well enough about her?" She asks frightfully and Meliodas shrugs dismissively.

"She isn't wrong." Meliodas signs back with a quirked brow and a half smile. "I did volunteer to help you because of my list." His words don't sit right with him, a strange sensation nags at his insides and he's confused for a moment. When her soft expression falls he regrets the words doubly so. "I just mean-"

"Do you like me?" She signs. Her eyes are clear blue, her brows pinch in worry, and Meliodas loses his breath in a rush. The lad is so stunned, he stops moving and he doesn't reply quick enough. Elizabeth tries to hide her heartbreak, turning and signing over her shoulder "I want to show you something", while her face twists up with unshed tears for a devastating moment before she swallows it down.

She is not aware a low, painful groan escapes her but Meliodas is overcome with the sound, his muscles shake when he hears her. Elizabeth kneels by her bookshelf, pulling out a flowered decor box with little metal handles. Her shoulders hunch, her fingers pry open the lid and Meliodas finally comes to his senses. 'She wants me to like her?' He thinks, trying to realign his thought train to run on the same tracks as hers. Slowly, the boy steps to her, lowering to his knees on the other side of the box full of papers and books.

He knows her well enough to be hurt at the sight of her fake smile. Her eyes are dulled, refusing to look at him and Meliodas sucks in a breath, his hands shaking as he reaches forward. Elizabeth finds what she is looking for and pulls out the old grade school picture book. She's flipping through the glossy pages, her tension easing as the young woman tries to come to terms with only being his friend. Her thoughts swirl around him making her cross it off on her list and her chest aches as she thinks 'maybe he will agree to the last item on the list, out of friendship, if I ask? I want it to be him, in the end.'

The tips of Meliodas fingers touch either of her elbows, both resting just above her hips but Elizabeth is sensitive, uncomfortable with the feelings that his touch evokes. When she finds the page she wants, she pulls back to put the pages between his face and hers, separating their contact. She knows the picture well, she visits this page on her darkest days.

Meliodas is at a loss of what to do or how to ease her hurts, but focuses on the pictures. There are a bunch of snapshots of their old shared classroom and the students from the year they met. In the upper right hand corner there is a picture of him. A rough young boy with his arm wrapped around a wide eyed and smiling Elizabeth. They were both holding up drawn pictures where they each had obviously attempted to capture the likeness of the other. With the gloss coating, his picture with her white hair looks non-existent but her blue eyes are big on the face he drew. Hers is better, messy blonde hair on top of blocky boy body.

Meliodas laughs, taking the book and remembering something kind from his childhood. 'It does not make what I did to her better, but its... nice.' He thinks as he basks in the feeling of connection this picture brings him. Elizabeth releases the book and watches his face. Her heart warms dangerously with his eyes dancing in emotions. His white teeth poke between his smiling lips and she watches the movement. He sets the book down, open over the box of other mementos. He signs "Your picture is much better than mine." His smile is beaming and she laughs out loud, making his expression amplify in its joy.

"No, you put flowers on my dress, look at the details." She signs back and Meliodas does look, her little finger points and there is. He had even drawn her blue orb earrings in each ear. The lad has always been very attentive to all her details.

Suddenly, the door bursts open and a bearded man barges in. Meliodas is triggered, hopping to his feet and standing before Elizabeth with fists clenched before he realizes he's fallen back on old habits. The lad eases his stance with a red face, looking over the man in the brown suit recognizing him from the pictures in the hall. Elizabeth doesn't hear the door, but turns from Meliodas' quick reflexive moves and when she sees who is in her room unannounced, her sad dull eyes spark to life once more.

"You're home early!" She signs and the older man laughs, looking between Meliodas and Elizabeth with bright brown eyes, full of mischief. Elizabeth stands, taking the lads arm as she points between them. "This is my Dad, Bartra. Dad, this is Meliodas!"

"I wouldn't have guessed." The older man signs and speaks. It was a small test but it needn't have been administered as the lad signs "Nice to meet you." Stealing a peek to Elizabeth's face to assess and he watches her shine return. He is grateful he is not dimming her light. Elizabeth signs to the man and after a moment, Bartra waves it off.

"I'm here to remind you the condoms are in the bathroom, in the medicine cabinet. I swear I don't count them." The old man laughs as the two younger people turn mortified. "I used to be young once, I know the urges." The two fingers on top of another two fingers sign for what he's saying looks obscene. "Safe sex is much more realistic than abstaining." When the tension is overwhelming Bartra feels he's done his fatherly duty of embarrassing his daughter just enough. "Also, dinner is ready." He steps out into the hall wiggling his eyebrows as he tells them "come down when you're finished".

The pair of them are both following Bartra into the hall before the older man has made it down the first few stairs. The older man laughs as he spots them rushing from the room while the young people are pointedly not looking at one another. "Ah, young love." He says out loud, only Meliodas feels the rapid race of his heart as he condemns the thoughts 'does she feel toward me, the same way I feel with her? She can't love me, I won't let her ruin her life with me!'

But a greedy monster is born then, another darker thought rising with it. 'If she wants to be mine, why shouldn't I take her? I can protect her while truly being with her.' A dark duality wars inside the lad, and all through this family's early dinner Meliodas is lost in his own head, barely able to catch all the signs thrown around. Each time he's confused, Elizabeth takes the time to explain what he misses and the lads desires on either side pulse stronger with her tenderness. 'She's too good for me.'


	4. Sloth

The remainder of this fic is Beta'd by The Entity, thank you for your kindness, your attention and your epic dissections! Praise be to The Entity, who is also a writer so check out his fics.

Chapter 4: Sloth

Meliodas and Elizabeth were in the same hall but opposite one another across the width. She is signing to Diane who is grasping the language more and more each day, while he is laughing with Ban about a new scrape his tall friend barely wiggled out of, listening to his story. Diane is extra adorable today, she even has little stars on either end of her wing tip eyeliner, her skirt did not meet dress code with how she wore it but if she is called into the office she has a plan. Elizabeth notices all this and asks "Why are you so good looking today?"

Diane flushes, looks behind Elizabeth to see the boys, Meliodas is looking to them but after assessing Elizabeth is still where he left her, turns back. Diane sighs nervously before she signs "I plan on asking out Meliodas today." Elizabeth's heart drops, she knows Diane likes Meliodas and she gives a wavering smile, closing her eyes to nod at her friend, trying to find a genuine encouraging thing to say.

To Elizabeth, Meliodas does not seem interested in her own advances. She thinks she is in the friend-zone, a sad place as she seems unable to move on to anyone else. '_Not that anyone wants to date me, I must be fling material only,' _Elizabeth thinks. Since Meliodas had come to dinner two weeks ago she has attempted to speak to two other boys who approached her but both time she slunk back to Meliodas' side. He made the same face, like he were about to be sick, each time it happened. '_I must support my friends if this is what they both want.' _To Elizabeth, Meliodas never pushes Diane away when she gets over-handsy but does not seem to like touching her.

Meliodas is trying to stay respectful. He keeps convincing himself Elizabeth did not mean 'like-like' when she asked so earnestly and charmingly if he likes her. Her dull-eyed expression keeps circling in his mind and he looks to her, again, just to replace the image with her current one. Meliodas knows though, he just prefers this for her sake. Ban notices him looking and punches his friend good-naturedly in the side of the ribs, Meliodas groans, delivering a retaliatory blow. They laugh through their pain.

"You are strung up so hard for that girl." Ban quips with a sideways grin at the face Meliodas makes. Ban raises his hands in surrender. "I know the feeling. There's a girl for me but she's perfect and I'm, well, _not_. You're probably the only person that will understand, huh?" Ban sighs. They are both uncomfortable with the emotional connection so Ban turns and starts walking to class.

A nasally upset shout cracks through the air. Ban stops, Meliodas too and the chattering in the hall mellows. A few students start off to class as if afraid but Ban reverses his decision to escape the situation he created, as he saw what occurred out of the corner of his eye.

Elizabeth is still, shock on her mortified face, but she turns hoping it is Meliodas from the bottom of her heart. A boy she has seen around but does not know is behind her. He is a head taller than her and it is shaved clean but his upper lip has a few stray hairs trying to sprout. He seems to have been in the sun too long, his skin tinted red and its peeling in a few places, but the cocky, winning grin is gasoline on Elizabeth's fire. His lips move around his grin, making it hard for her to read what he says but she can honestly say she does not want to know this time.

Meliodas hears it though. The boy says "You've been cursed with all these curves, good thing I know what to do with them." Meliodas missed the boy groping Elizabeth or Meliodas would have lost his grip on his anger and body-slammed the assaulter. Instead, Meliodas thinks '_is this someone she knows?' _She turns to the guy and her knee slams up into the boys' naughty bits. The bald guy goes down, screaming high pitch as a few spectators give a low 'oooo' wince. When he goes fetal, Meliodas reads the back of his jersey, it says 'Galand' and he notes the last name.

Meliodas intends to find out the boys crime, as he doubts Elizabeth's punishment does it justice. If he broke her heart, he would break him.

Meliodas goes to Elizabeth, takes her hand and calls over to Diane "see you later" as she too did not know what occurred to spark Elizabeth kneeing a student in the balls. She spins, confused as Elizabeth is pulled away from the scene toward their next class by an intense Meliodas. He changes hallways in a rush as he realizes today is the first day of actual cooking in their home economics class. They have gone over safety like they were five all last week.

Other students are waiting outside the shut door and Meliodas does not check if it's locked before guiding her over to the wall and signing "What happened?" She is still flush with anger, her brows pinch and her plump lips angle down in a frown but she's still the epitome of beauty to him.

"Nothing. I handled it." She declares with harsh hand movements, faster than she usually is with him. '_She has, hasn't she?' _and Meliodas starts to reconsider whether she really needs him or not. To him, it feels as if the ground has fallen out from under him and he shakes alongside Elizabeth. Ban joins them a moment later, giving Meliodas a long look but he doesn't say a word as he can tell Meliodas is upset.

Mr. Wallio arrives after the bell, letting them in and allowing them to pick their own groups. Ban, Elizabeth, and Meliodas claim the yellow kitchen together and the recipe on their table is Snickerdoodles. Some of the ice cracks off Elizabeth and when she warms- Meliodas follows, a mirror to her emotions.

The three of them work together, Meliodas measures, Elizabeth mixes and Ban does the rolling and coating. While they are in the oven Elizabeth's shining eyes peer into Meliodas and he is lost in her for a moment before she signs worriedly, "Was I loud? Did my voice sound normal?"

Meliodas thinks of his stupid note he wrote her as a child and pushes his locks back from his forehead as he takes on this burden. '_She's self-conscious about her voice because of my dumbass.'_ He reaches to her, touching the back of her hand. It's Ban who signs to her, facing them both with a laugh. "Of course you were loud, that jerk grabbed your ass. Anyone would be surprised."

Meliodas' touch falls from her and his stomach burns as his mind goes dark, violent. '_He touched her.' _He thinks, but he works through his anger, to center himself in a more healthy place. One of his best tools is simply focusing on her and so he does. He knows she handled the issue herself, so he forces himself to let it go. Galand got one over on him, Meliodas believes he should have been watching, that he could have prevented the event altogether and he wants to be more diligent for her.

Meliodas reaches around Elizabeth to start the water in the sink and she shyly moves around him to get out of his way. She rolls up her sleeves, getting a towel and with Meliodas washing, her drying and Ban putting the items away, the dishes are done in record time. They are like a well-oiled machine and the three of them are confident in their cookies as they look warm and gooey when they come out.

They each take one and cutely they tap the treats in a prost before they bite into it. Something has gone terribly wrong. Elizabeth simply opens her mouth and lets the cookie bite fall back into her hand. Ban spins to turn on the faucet and puts his entire jaw, mouth, and tongue under the cascade with his head in the sink. Meliodas' skin grows pale, edging into green but he swallows it like it were rocks, his throat protesting.

"What happened?" Elizabeth signs, tossing her spit up bite and cookie into the trash. Ban takes a paper towel, drying off his face and takes another to wipe at his tongue. Elizabeth does not think he is over exaggerating, she herself wishes she could brush her teeth a few times. Ban points to Meliodas and the accused lad's spine straightens as a strange laugh escapes him.

"Me?" Meliodas asks, pointing to himself but then he shrugs. "I did think it was strange we needed so much Tartar. Let me see the recipe." The lad steps over to the sheet on the table but Mr. Waillo reaches their kitchen expectantly. Discreetly, Ban signs to his partners, Elizabeth is the only one that notices his words of "distract him" as Meliodas is looking over the recipe with wide eyes.

The short man has on a sweater vest and the first thing that pops into Elizabeth mind is to compliment the teacher. The only problem is he doesn't know sign language. Mr. Waillo winces in his own awkwardness, scratching at his jaw as he stares blankly at her hand movements. "You know, you don't look deaf." The teacher notes absently and Elizabeth's movements stop, her eyes growing wide before she frowns, she hates when people say that.

"What does a deaf person _look like_, Mr. Waillo?" Meliodas asserts, abandoning the cookie printout with his shoulders back. The teacher is weary, looking between the two.

"I just, mean. You know." The teacher fumbles just as Ban returns, sliding back into their kitchen and passes the man a cookie.

"Do you also think it's strange when people in wheelchairs have legs, Mr. Waillo? Or do you think Deaf people shouldn't be this attractive?" Meliodas inquires and Elizabeth's fingers raise to her lips in surprise as he signs what he says. She flushes at the compliment and likes that he is defending her but wishes the burden of it didn't fall to him.

Mr. Waillo takes a bite of the cookie, doesn't act as if he is going to vomit, and steps away to the next kitchen. "That wasn't our cookie." Elizabeth signs to Ban and the tall man shrugs making the sign for "Thief" while pointing to himself. He dumps their cookie batch into the trash, taking the tray to the sink and starts cleaning as the young woman tugs on Meliodas' sleeve to get his attention.

"You should talk to me more." Meliodas signs with a grin, feeling as if the two are alone with how close they are standing. "I like your voice better than any sound I've ever heard."

Elizabeth's breath catches, but with the open truth in his eyes, her feelings for this boy start to pulse all the stronger. She tries hard not to let them grow, but it is an unstoppable force. "_Okay"_ she whispers shakily. Her voice is so soft Meliodas barely hears it while standing before her, but his eyes dance with joy and his grin notches up higher on his one cheek.

Her watch vibrates a fraction of a moment before the bell rings.

Ban gives the pair a wave but they are so absorbed in one another Ban simply rolls his eyes and goes. Elizabeth and Meliodas' arms touch companionably when they walk through the halls and the two reluctantly separate to their own desks in their next class. It has not started but Mr. Hawk, midway through a massive sandwich is speaking to an office aid by his desk with a missive in his meaty hand. The student leaves and Mr. Hawk's red face is tense.

"Elizabeth." Mr. Hawk calls out, a few of the students that have trickled in before the bell look up, so does Meliodas but the girl he called for does not. Elizabeth is looking through her bag. Meliodas reaches over and taps her desk, she smiles to him but it falls when he points to Mr. Hawk's grim face. The young woman stands, leaving her things behind to go to the front of the class.

Meliodas watches the two. Mr. Hawk is terrible at signing but he knows some words. He sees the round man sign "boy says-" but the rest he points to the paper. Elizabeth's hair sways when she shakes her head _no_ vehemently. "Office." Mr. Hawk's chunky fingers sign. Meliodas stands, walking forward but the bell rings and the round teacher addresses the class.

"I need to handle a bit of injustice." Mr. Hawk is a man with a very clear distinction of right and wrong with a strong will to fight. "I want the lot of you to read the next few chapters in our novel, keep the noise to a minimum I don't want complaints. Don't let me down." Mr. Hawk spots Meliodas and gives the student a sad shake of his head and waves his finger to indicate he sit back down.

He listens but as Elizabeth follows Mr. Hawk he regrets not pushing himself on them as an interpreter. Meliodas knows he personally isn't the greatest at sign language but on the same side of that coin, the others around Elizabeth are abysmal at it. The students are split. Some actual read while others talk among themselves. Meliodas pulls out his worn copy of their assigned novel when his desk skids an inch to the side from a girl sliding to sit on the top of it. Her skirt rides up and she bends her one knee to give only Meliodas a peek at her panties.

"Melio, wanna go for shakes this weekend?" Diane asks, Meliodas' red face raises from her skirt to her fingers twirling in her brown hair. She's grinning and from behind he hears Guila and Jericho giggling. This annoys him, but Diane is Elizabeth's friend and in general he doesn't hate her.

"Why don't you ask Elizabeth," Meliodas tells her, standing from his desk to hop a row over after grabbing the strap of his bag to sit in Elizabeth's seat. He is a man, he does react to the exposed flesh to a degree but it is dull arousal. Comparable to seeing Elizabeth's earlobe, as that usually evokes slim arousal, anguish, and guilt, all things that Diane is inspiring in him now.

Diane is a persistent girl, she spins to face him, her legs parting as she rests her feet on the top of Elizabeth's desk so the curves of her behind pokes out. He doesn't look, instead, he opens Elizabeth's abandoned bag, wanting to find her notebook with the list again. Meliodas wants to memorize it, he has already started a way to help her, since she helps him with his own sins.

Without her, Ban would not be in his life again. Meliodas hasn't had a friend since they seperated, as he only ever truly had two. Elizabeth and Ban, both of them he hurt to the point of hospitalization, and both had physical scars he left on their persons. A shiver runs down his spine so cold he swears out loud. Diane giggles as she thinks he spots her under-the-skirt action at that moment.

"I want to do something with just you, Elizabeth can come another time." Diane explains, her megawatt smile goes unnoticed because Meliodas finds the notebook and flips through the pages. A slip of paper falls out and he tucks it back in, seeing a name and a phone number on it. '_Is Mael a boys name?'_ Meliodas shakes his head, deciding it does not matter.

He finds the list quick enough as he tells Diane "I will hang out with you and Elizabeth as a group." It's the nicest way he can think to turn her down and another student behind him sighs loudly in annoyance. Meliodas looks over his shoulder to see a reddish brown head of hair with their assigned novel covering his face. He had on a blue and orange vest jacket over his long sleeve shirt but his fingers were rough with burns. Meliodas recognized those marks, welding wounds. The lad looks at his own fingers, noting his own scarred knuckles and burns from his weekends fixing up a Honda CBR at his brothers shop.

"That's a problem," Diane perks her breasts up, "I want it to be a date, not a group thing." Meliodas studies Elizabeth's bucket list, reaches across the gap between the desks and pulls his notebook out from under Diane's rear. He flips to a blank page. The girly sounds coming from Diane are not her usual and Meliodas gives her a surprised double-take.

"You're my friend," Meliodas tells her, thinking this is clear enough for the girl to understand. "I don't want to mess with what we have."

"We do have something special, don't we." Diane giggles and again, the student behind Meliodas responds audibly. It resembles a struggling groan, as if he is trying to pick something up that's too heavy for him but at a whispering level.

The class is loud and Ban, who actually enjoys reading, stands up across the room from his seat nearest the door. He slams his fist on the wall to get the classes attention. "I can't hear myself think!" Ban glares menacingly over at the students but the noise simply lowers rather than dies.

Ban gives up and walks toward the distracted Meliodas. He is shrewd enough to understand the situation as soon as he sees it. Ban even recognizes the student behind Meliodas and the jealousy pinched across his face. He's Harlequin and he is a person whom Ban desperately wants to impress, or at least, get some kindness out of. A loose plan forms in him as he hears Diane's next words.

"Maybe we can go to the school's play together. They are doing Romeo and Juliet." The girl's pigtails bob and she gives the side of Meliodas' face a simpering look but he's not watching, instead, he's copying something down. "Chandlers in it, but of course football comes first so he didn't get lead male. You two used to be friends and since you're on a reconciliation kick-"

"No," Meliodas directly denies her, copying the last item down from Elizabeth's list but his pencil point snaps on his paper as soon as her words register. Diane's face falls. "We were never friends." Meliodas knows this for sure and when Ban taps his knuckle on Elizabeth's desk out of habit, Meliodas looks up to the tall form of his spikey-haired friend, a physical manifestation of everything Chandler isn't.

"You are barking up the wrong tree, Diane." Ban tells the girl out of kindness but his words are short and concise. "Meliodas' heart's been taken for _years._"

"No it isn't" Diane scoffs, "he was with Zaneri start of sophomore year, and Jennah and that flat chested chick that sits behind you, _what's her name_."

"Where he puts his dick, doesn't say a thing about his heart." Harlequin interjects from behind them speaking over the edge of his book, eyes on Diane. Meliodas releases a chest-rumbling growl as he looks to the ceiling, thankful Elizabeth isn't here, but his anxiety from their separation grows from the topic his 'friends' have chosen. He folds her notebook shut, careful with her bag and much gentler with her things than his own. He fists his snapped pencil and slams his own notebook shut. Meliodas leaves the lot of them surrounding Elizabeth's desk to sharpen it and to escape the escalating emotions building inside him.

"Oh, hey King," Diane says, sliding from the top of Meliodas' desk to sit in his chair, facing the reddish-haired lad with a kind expression. Ban leans against the wall, looking between the two as their conversation stalls.

"Heard your work in robotics is magic, Harlequin." Ban offers the topic between them, hoping to put the reddish lad in a favorable light to Diane. The pigtailed girl does beam but Harlequin is too focused on Ban to note it. King knows what he is trying to do. He does not say a word about it until Diane pouts at Meliodas who is taking an overly long time to sharpen his pencil. She even watches him open the door and look both ways down the hall. Diane sighs, knowing he's looking for Elizabeth.

"Does he like me?" Diane asks the two lads currently sharing very different looks. King's demeanor changes, face growing pink.

"He'd be stupid not to, Diane. You're so great." Harlequin blurts, his face growing warmer by the second. The girl sighs before slipping from his desk and returning to her other friends, Guila and Jericho, both of which hush questions to her following her arrival. Ban slinks over, taking Elizabeth's seat, but sitting backwards in it to face King.

"I'm going to level with you. Your sister is-" The lanky lad starts but King scoffs holding up his hand.

"She's a freshman. You are a senior. There is no way I'll allow it." Harlequin returns to his book and Ban sighs, plucking it from him.

"You've read this already, so have I. Don't dismiss me, we've been friends too long." Ban and Harlequin stare before Ban continues. "Tell me straight, what can I do for your blessing?" Ban tosses the book down to slide over the top of King's desk and it spins between them while Ban crosses his arms while refusing to look away. Slowly, King smiles, leans back and puts his hands on his head in a full cocky gesture.

"Nothing." Harlequin quips with a cruel set to his grin, his eyes even dance at the thought of letting his friend twist in the wind. He relents, lying to a degree, "Convince Meliodas to join the chess team. Without him we're going to get smashed at regionals. Again." The two look over at the blonde lad, they watched as he put the sharpened pencil behind his ear and his other hand pushes back his chaotic locks from worry. The pencil slipped from his ear from the tossling, hitting the ground and the lad curses, picking it up to sharpen the thing again.

"_Him?"_ Ban asks with disbelief, not having any memory of his friend ever being interested in the chess club or ever being astoundingly smart. To Ban chess sounds like an intelligent-person game.

"He's stupid in general." Harlequin admits. "Honestly, everyone is," The reddish lads voice drops low but Ban catches the words. The confidence of knowing he is simply hyper intelligent isn't settled in King yet, he does not fully realize that he is beyond the average. It comes off as cruel but Harlequin _doesn't care_. "But he has skills in strategy that are beyond my own and no matter the odds he always angles for the win. Watching him work over a board is... vexatious. He beats me every time but refuses to play competitively."

"Vexatious?" Ban asks, intelligent himself and intuitive enough to pick up on his friends tone to infer the word meaning as either awe-inspiring or utterly annoying. '_Probably both',_ Ban thinks but he nods, accepting the challenge. If this will make the obstacles between him and his only purposeful goal in life disappear, he will conquer it. "Whatever, and after you'll stop giving me and Elaine such a hard time?"

"I'm too pissed at you to guarantee anything. You only wanted to stay over all those times to sneak in her room at night." King bristles, picking up his book again. "She's a freshman." He condemns, saying it again, as he opens to his abandoned page to start reading. King frowns in his agitation with this conversation and the rising noise of his peers.

Meliodas rejoins them, taking his seat and giving Ban, currently in Elizabeth's seat, a disapproving stare. So much so, that Ban rises, standing between the rows in a sign of respect for his friends strange urge to protect even her empty desk. The pencil in the blonde lads hand is shorter from his angry twirling of the sharpeners handle and he is grateful that Diane has given up as his unease is growing without Elizabeth. He fears he will be too abrasive with her if she approaches now.

In his mind, the next name on his list is swirling and partially its Diane's fault. Meliodas had told Elizabeth the basics of the sin. His ex-girlfriend, the one he had before he'd been sent to the detention center, Derieri. With her face shape and pale blue eyes, the lad had imagined her as someone else when he'd been with her. '_How many times had I tossed her a pony tail and demanded she draw her too-dark locks back before I took her body?' _The shame of how fucked up he found his actions does not take away from his sins to her. To Meliodas, Derieri had been a copy, a weak imitation. The only redeeming thing that came with that knowledge is long ago, he had felt a fraction of tenderness for Derieri, a sliver of what he always feels for Elizabeth.

The others girls he's been with had not received the same treatment as Derieri. Zaneri and her soft skin that reminded him of Elizabeth never triggered emotion, just desire. Jennah's platinum blonde had enticed him but he hadn't stuck around as her personality hadn't resembled Elizabeths in the slightest. He owed them nothing but what happened between him and Derieri, she deserved an apology.

The lad turns to look over at Derieri's empty desk, black marker is splattered over the top of it. Her attendance is shotty with this being their last year and although the lad does not know her grades he figures they are below par, falling short for graduating on time. None of this matters, as he pulls his notebook out and in a twisting painful irony, Meliodas uses Derieri again to distract himself from Elizabeth being gone.

"You ever think about Chess club?" His friend Ban asks, trying to make the question light as he picks up on Meliodas' churning tension. Ban leans against his desk, the notebook jostling over the bullet point notes he was making. The blonde boys tormented green eyes rose to meet Ban's dark ones and with confusion Meliodas shakes his head no.

"_Why?"_ Meliodas asks with his mind in another place, but Ban shrugs, turning but calling over his shoulder, "Forget it." As Ban plans in his mind another way to earn Harlequins favor.

Almost half of their class time passes. Meliodas finishes the basic outline of what he needs to write to Derieri when he pulls out his phone to text Elizabeth. His thumbs are over his worn screen when the classroom door opens and she walks in, fists tight and shoulders back. Her cheeks are flushed angrily and her blue eyes are on fire as they glare prettily at nothing and everything at once.

Meliodas exhales in a rush of alleviation and King, a row back, chuckles in complete understanding but the sound cuts off as he spots Diane. Harlequin's chest grows tight at seeing her expression, the confused but hurting one Diane wears as she watches Meliodas and Elizabeth. '_I know how hard it is to watch the person you love, love someone else,' _Harlequin thinks.

Meliodas, across the room, begins frantically signing. He stands, stalking toward her to meet her at the front of the class. Mr. Hawk walks by the pair and rubs at his stubbly chins, eyes pinching as he maneuvers his wide rear into the chair behind his desk. He's a smart man and his frustration at what just happened in the office burns him up, his stomach rolling. Mr. Hawk isn't even hungry, ignoring the remainder of his sandwich still on the top of his desk.

"I handled it." Elizabeth signs, her eyes clearing at Meliodas concern. "Galand went home, saying I injured him far more than I have, but once I explained he dropped the whole complaint. In the end, they tried to give me detention but they called my father." Elizabeth grins as she signs, "The principal handed me the phone to talk to him and judging by all their faces my dad ripped them a new one about it. The phone shook in my hand from how loud he yelled."

Hearing this, the principal lost the small amount of respect he had gained with him. Meliodas doesn't laugh but gives a smile in response to hers, he likes the joy that twists on her glossy lips. '_Everyone is an idiot, she is probably so frustrated with the world eighty percent of the time,'_ he thinks. The two take their seats and absently Mr. Hawk passes out a question sheet about the upcoming chapters in their novel, assigning them the work due tomorrow.

"They wrote it all out. Mr. Hawk tried to sign but he is slow," Elizabeth's face softens as she gazes up at the teacher with her sparkling eyes. She graces his oblivious form with a kind look and Meliodas' appreciation for Mr. Hawk amps up. "Galand said he was trying to get my attention, that he had to touch me as I can't hear." Meliodas watches the girl scowl with a flash of rage, its intensity surprising him. "He's just another man who thinks it's okay to toy with me." Elizabeth signs it so fast Meliodas hopes he misunderstood.

"Another one? What happened before?" Meliodas asks and the young woman's face blooms with color, he finds her cheeks beautiful with the rosy hue but her eyes lose their spark, dimming until empty. She shrugs. Elizabeth grasps at anything else to talk about and spots his open notebook. She looks at it just long enough to realize what it is before Meliodas gently slides it back from under her fingertips.

He does not want her to know the details about Derieri as it shows just how much Elizabeth influences his life. "Elizabeth." Meliodas signs, touching the back of her hand but she waves it away, picking up and packing away her things. "Tell me what happened? Name names and I will handle it for you." He has her attention and at his threat, one she wrongly interprets as a joke, she smiles her beaming bright grin that has Meliodas catching his breath. Her eyes glint with sorrow, not the joy she stretches across her expression.

"Some boys are entitled assholes." She signs back with a shrug and Meliodas nods, accepting it, as she focuses on her work. Meliodas, at seeing her demeanor change, decides to take on the burden of keeping her body out of these juvenile's hands. Although, Meliodas is one of those teenage boys. '_I understand why she's been groped before and if ever I'm given free reign to touch her there would not be a single opportunity missed to press any part of me to any part of her.' _Meliodas' mind tempts him and condemns like a two for one sale.

The bell rings. Diane joins both of them at their locker and he is beyond disappointed when the pigtailed girl doesn't have football practice to keep her from walking Elizabeth home. In the front of the school, where busses were leaving and bodies heaving backpacks went in every direction, the girls parted from Meliodas.

"Text me when you get off work. Maybe this weekend-" Elizabeth signs, her pretty hands are graceful through the air but while Meliodas watches, nodding to her request with a racing heart at the prospect of more being shared between them, Diane hugs him.

Due to her being taller than Meliodas by about a foot, she is a rather giant girl in comparison, Meliodas' head meets the side of Diane's chest. Meliodas' one wide eye sees Elizabeth's expression fall, her fingers curling limp as her hands drop a few inches in the air. The pigtailed girl giggles, rubbing just enough to get the message across before separating, taking Elizabeth's hand from the air and pulls her away.

He watches Elizabeth, noting her shoulders are more hunched, which is unusual but he loses his stare when a body slams into his. Meliodas loses his balance, catching himself easy enough and turning to face whoever assaulted him. Bodies were moving too quickly and the lad gives up pinning anyone down for the act. He pulls his phone out to text his brother.

-On my way. If I finish by Saturday night can I take it Sunday?-

Meliodas pockets his phone, moving his feet quicker for the few extra moments it grants before he must leave for his actual job. His brother is giving him his old motorcycle, the Honda CBR he's been rebuilding for the low-low price of being his brother's bitch for three weekends in a row. This one is his last and he is hoping for one day, just one, so he can ask Elizabeth if she wants to 'ride a bike'. To help her mark something off her list. Meliodas wants to teach her how to drive one too, he imagines she will enjoy that.

Meliodas is off school grounds, jogging around a chunky pile of rotting vomit on the sidewalk when his phone sounds a response. As there is a chance it is Elizabeth, Meliodas slows to pull his device free.

-Do the shitbox trans in my Impala and you can take whatever the fuck you want.-

Meliodas smiles, knowing his brother is probably balls deep in frustration restoring his 'dream car', which he calls 'the albatross'. The fact that Zeldris knows that literary reference with his level of attention back when he was in school, is a borderline miracle. The lad readjusts his things, knowing he will still help Gelda part out her Camry.

The lad arrives, suits up and dives into The Albatross. Zeldris isn't around and Gelda tells Meliodas cheerily "He needed to walk it off, you boys and your tempers." She's shaking her head, ponytail swaying. Gelda keeps her music down to encourage talking between them but a conversation never starts.

His elder brother returns, determined but still in a frustrated tizzy. The man's black greasy hair stuck up on one side from tugging at his locks. Zeldris and Meliodas work together busting off the seized bolt on his Impala, elated until it slowly dawns on both of them it took over an hour and now, finally, they can start working on the actual issue. With the two's hands busy, and mind focusing on their task, talking comes easier.

"Shouldn't we, I dunno, celebrate your sobriety or something? Aren't three's important?" Zeldris tries to open a valley of conversation, he finds this path is blocked but Zeldris' main concern is his brother's old habit.

"I'm not in a program, I'm just a user currently not using." Meliodas sighs, pushing off with his feet to slide his back along the floor to get a better angle under the engine. "I have my own methods that work when the urges arise."

"Which are?" Zeldris inquires, thinking of ways he would resist if he were the user and not his younger brother. '_Gelda is enough, more than enough... maybe my goals with the shop and Meliodas himself.' _The elder brothers thoughts warm him and he extrapolates out his own guesses on what Meliodas' methods are, as he doesn't expect an answer. He gets one, though.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas hushes, just as the song changes and the nine mm socket top slips from Zeldris' fingers in surprise. It drops into the gaps of his exposed motor and the man curses. '_Another thing The Albatross has devoured.' _

"So the love letter worked? If you want to invite your girl over for dinner som-" Zeldris focuses back on his brother but the angry sound from Meliodas stops his words. The noise is a helpless, lost groan with a deep resentment woven in. Zeldris feels it as if an electrical cord connects their emotions and he understands his brother in this brief moment between them.

"She can't be my girl. I have nothing, am nothing." Meliodas pushes his wrench away, scooting out as he's done with this and wants a shower before work.

Zeldris knows he's going and turns away to silently ask Gelda. To the man, she's stunning, her wide-eyes tell him '_reassure him, give girlfriend advice'_ so the husband winces, turning back to try again. What comes out of his mouth has Gelda quietly facepalming over and over. "Eh, uh. You know after everything you should be proud and all your tests came back clean so you're-"

"No." Meliodas pushes up off the ground to stand, rolls back his shoulders aggressively as he steps away from his brother. "I'm disease free but in no way am I '_clean'._" The blonde lad sneers the last word, strolling into the bathroom. Gelda silently punches the air in Zeldris' direction, frustrated, but she makes her way over. Beside the Impala Gelda explains how being 'clean or disease-free' isn't what is stopping Meliodas from asking out the woman he loves. Zeldris grits his teeth, thinking '_It's like the blind leading the crippled, but I won't give up on him'._

Meliodas cleans up, grabs his stuff and arrives at work with the same bristling feelings just under the surface. In his frustration, he leaves his phone in his bag not realizing there were two missed messages from Elizabeth. They read,

_-I've been trying to find a way to say this, so I'm just going to ask.- _

_-Do you like Diane?-_

The young woman is home alone, her older sisters have returned to their lives once more and her father is working late in his law office. Diane had walked her home exuberantly talking about her crush on Meliodas, about her worries on their height difference and then asked Elizabeth if she liked anyone. At the time, Elizabeth had waved the question away, but the answer had come to her in a flushing heartbeat.

Meliodas.

Her phone is silent and tears fall as she plugs it in to charge. She waits, an hour, another, before her tired eyes close and she drifts into sleep in her day clothes. Her last thought is '_its none of my business who he likes, he's only around me because of his list.'_

The lad thinks about his brother's words of 'love letter' and he wallows in deep longing, one that never truly leaves him. He wishes for a time when it would have been possible for Elizabeth to be his. '_Before I fucked everything up.' _His shift ends, out of habit he grabs a few junk food bags from the expired cart before he heads back to his brother's shop. There is still work to be done if he wants the chance to see Elizabeth Sunday.

Gelda and Zeldris had left the lights on but had both retired for the evening. He keeps the noise down, as they lived above, and to distract himself he works through the night until it's finished. He had to pop out the indent in the gas tank and it took him a long while to find the tools. Meliodas does not notice the missed texts until well into the morning and blanches at her question when he checks.

Meliodas fumbles with his phone, black marks smudging as he grasps the falling tech with slipping fingers. The lad rereads the texts, twice, a third time before he groans loud and low as his heart races and mind circles in possibilities. He doesn't care that it's late, he worries she is fretting about this and starts, -No one comes close to-, but erases it, shaking his head. '_Fuck'_ he thinks '_how can I reassure her without giving myself away? Is she asking as Diane's friend?'_

The lad rubs his dark hands over his face, spreading the dark car grease across his skin. He thinks about it, setting his phone aside as he puts the tools away, phrases forming.

'_In a world where you exist, no one else does. You are the sun, the brightest warmest star, blazing feelings into my life. The darkest corners of me are illuminated with you and without you, in the endless night that blankets me, I barely endure.'_

Frustration wells in the lad as he dismisses his words, no outlet for them to escape. Instead, he messages the girl a concise response, clear so there are no misunderstandings while pep talking himself into being just as direct with Diane herself.

_-No, I don't like Diane, beyond being her friend.-_

The lad showers in the dingy shop bathroom so the water's cascade doesn't wake his family above, tugging at his hair and internally fighting with himself. Later, he is inspired to write and Meliodas climbs up to his brother's apartment, sets himself up at the table with the intent to finish Derieri's letter. He does and after he reads it over, cringing and chewing his lip skin up.

The scraps and burns on his hands are wonderful until a spot of his blood leaks on his second draft. He heavily edits the flourishing prose until it sounds sincere but _not_ like a love letter. In the end, it is a goodbye letter and he is satisfied when it reflects that to his qualifications while still hitting all of his sins.

In particular, it highlights how sorry he is that he treated her so cruelly. His words fail to fully capture the exact moments but his regretful apology is adequate. Meliodas knows where she lives, but does not know her address number. He opens his notebook to his list of Sins and puts a check by her name. Ban's name is the only one crossed off. '_I need to distance myself from him again, he doesn't deserve to be apart of this mess.'_

Meliodas makes himself as small as possible in the guest bedroom to sleep for the night. All Saturday, he does every errand and request sent his way. In the end, Zeldris enters his storeroom, pulling out his old leather jacket and the pair of black biker helmets that Gelda and himself haven't worn in months. The brother tosses Meliodas the keys, giving him a stern look "If I get a call about your brains splattered on the asphalt when I'm giving you a helmet, I'll beat your ass." This is a language they both understand and Meliodas smiles to his brother.

The blonde lad messages Elizabeth, setting up their first date with the goal of visiting his ex-girlfriend. The plans settle uncomfortably but when she agrees, the unease condenses to make way for anticipation. He stays with his brother and Gelda that night, cleaning up and helping them cook, talking more openly in his excitement for Sunday. He's up early the next morning, leather jacket on, which fits perfectly as Zeldris and Meliodas are the same size, and he puts on the bigger helmet before getting on his Honda CBR.

Zeldris took him to get his Moto-license at the beginning of this adventure three weekends ago and now it's time to use it. His essential things are already in the locked compartment as he looks over the roughed up, older bike, but he feels proud as he did get it working again on his own.

'_She'll be excited.'_ Meliodas thinks, kicking up as he hits the gas, letting off the clutch and shifting gears as he takes the corner to the main streets. With it being so early there are far fewer cars and he's relieved with the extra space as his second gear is sticking. He repeatedly shifts down and into the gear until it's smoother, wanting this to be a bike she can learn easily.

In her neighborhood, Meliodas feels like he's intruding more than usual with the rumbling engine under him sounding deafening in the peaceful silence. Still, he pulls into her driveway, the half wall around her house extends beside the perfectly framed entrance. The windows are dark, he cuts the bike and opens the compartment to get his phone, he sends her a text while stepping away from the machine and easily jumps over the wall to walk across her yard.

Just to be sure, he watches at her window for any hint of her getting dressed. The room stays dark and he goes to the flowerbed before her porch to pull free a handful of rocks. When the lad has it lined up just so, he tosses one to her window. It taps, falling back into the flowerbed. He sends up another, followed by a third when he freezes. "Fuck!" He curses to himself. She's deaf and Meliodas' frustration at himself flares as he throws the rest of the rocks harshly in the direction he found them. He sends her another text.

-I'm on your porch. Wear jeans, closed shoes, and a leather jacket. We're taking my bike.-

The lad twists, sitting down on the steps outside her house and pinches his eyes closed. The lad is patient, he feels waiting like this is his own fault for being early but even if he wasn't, he will wait for Elizabeth however long he must. His phone chimes and his heart races just as the door behind him unlocks, the bolt sliding free. Meliodas stands, expecting it to open as he looks at his message, feet on different steps.

-No one is home, come in if you want.-

Meliodas halts, stretched across the stairs as his wide eyes stare at the opaque glass front door. His mind races, images of Elizabeth's body flashing temptingly but he stays where he is, uncomfortable to the point of causing himself a headache. Meliodas hyperventilates making his vision blur, his head swirling in a fog before he shakes himself free, retreating back from the door. '_She can't be for me. I'm looking into this too much, tainting what she's saying with my own desires.'_

Elizabeth emerges less than thirty minutes later, crestfallen but happy to see him before she locks the door behind her. Meliodas takes a minute to look her over, wondering how she is different but decides it must be that he's missed her and seeing her again simply causes his awareness of her to sharpen to a fine tipped blade. Her hair is plaited in a cute zig-zag pattern, the two sections braided over her ears so he doesn't see her hearing aids, but he does spot the matching bows tied over her elastic ties at the ends of her silvery tresses.

"You're..." Meliodas starts but lets his hands fall as he changes his mind about signing how appealing she is to him. The skin-tight jeans are what he asked for, her light pink and black mock-leather jacket cuts in at her sides to emphasize her form. "I want to show you something." The pair head down the path around her house, he notes how precise the edge lines are in her grass as they exit the side gate to her driveway. She gasps at his motorcycle, then spins to blow his wits away and all his resolve with her gleeful expression.

"I've never been on a motorcycle before." She signs and he smiles.

"Yeah, your list." He says out loud before switching to finish with signs, "You're helping me with mine so I want to help you with yours." She laughs, her head thrown back and her hand reaches to grip his bicep, her blue eyes dancing so delightfully he can't look away. Just like when she's dressing before her window, he's ensnared.

"Bike, like," she motions with her hands moving pedals alternating high and low. Meliodas frowns before she continues, "But this is so much better than an old cycling bike," and he knows from her beaming she means it. Her grip on his arm squeezes as she pulls away walking around the CBR and Meliodas grows nervous at her inspection. He had spent hours rebuilding it but now he felt like he should have washed it off more. Elizabeth though, only excitedly asks about it, pointing and pulls him down to her level when she sees how the gears change with the foot shifter.

Meliodas is much more in his element, talking more to her than ever before until she jumps up, grabs a black helmet and shoves it over her head. To him, she looks adorable. Her pink jacket is plastic, a mockery of real leather and would not hold up in a crash but with her, he will be exceedingly and excessively careful. If he did not think his jacket would simply slip off her, he would give her his. He puts his helmet on too, the visor down and excited blue meets nervous green.

"She'll forgive you." Elizabeth signs, wrongly pinning his nervousness to the upcoming event of delivering his letter to Derieri. "Want me to read it before you give it to her?" She asks and Meliodas shakes his head, his tension calming at her concern. With a little awkwardness, the lad situates the bike and rolls it in a semi-circle to face the street before climbing on, his face flames at the prospect of her core and chest pressed to his back.

Elizabeth hops on after him with no hesitation, pressing so close his breathing stops. She wiggles in and the boy groans as he shakily clutches at his keys, '_this was a bad idea, and it's not even the kind of bike she was talking about. Who doesn't know how to ride a pedal bike?' _Yet Meliodas' racing heart and stiffening cock solidify his decision to take her with him.

When he slides the key into the ignition, Elizabeth's hands wrap around him and for a moment Meliodas closes his eyes to savor the feeling. Her chest squishes to his shoulder blades at his back and lightly, her helmet taps against his. Sweetly, her fist forms and she signs over his chest "sorry" with a little rub of her digits over his heart. Meliodas curses and praises Zeldris' jacket with an intense duality as feeling her fingers on his torso would have pushed him to the limit.

Meliodas taps her knee with lingering fingertips, points to his foot and her helmet moves to look at his shoe as he starts the bike. She flinches closer and he groans, biting his lip as it felt too much like a miniscule thrust of her body against his. The bike eases forward and she snuggles closer, her thighs flush to his but her life is in his hands so Meliodas' focus is acute.

He takes a longer way, a meandering journey and when they find a hill, he leans forward into it. She follows, giggling as they move and Meliodas finds himself enjoying the ride with her. The scenes are nothing spectacular. Buildings too close to one another and parking lots paved over the natural growth. The lad tries, going toward and circling a park, then taking a route to see the city from above but he doesn't see anything great there. Elizabeth rests her head on the back of his shoulder squeezing him tighter.

After enjoying every moment of her body adjacent to his, more so than every sexual encounter he's ever had, Meliodas heads toward Derieri's. He thinks about the best place to teach Elizabeth to drive on their way, deciding just as he pulls into the trailer park. The roads are curvy, rows and rows of trailers aligned along the way. Meliodas does not feel out of place here, but approaching Derieri's tin home sparks nothing in him. What he felt for her is a grain of rice compared to his silos of Elizabeth and with the lad being saturated with her now, he wonders if he is even remembering correctly after the months that have passed.

Derieri's trailer doesn't stand out among the others. It's brown with a twirling rainbow wind chime hanging from the roof beside the walking path. Old plastic off-white chairs are on the landing beside the front door, which faces the back of another trailer parallel to this one. Meliodas shuts off the bike to use the key to unlock the storage bin but Elizabeth thinks the ride is over, that they are doing more than just dropping it off in her mailbox. She climbs off the bike, feeling over Meliodas chest and gripping his shoulder to do so.

Elizabeth is unstrapping her helmet, oblivious to Meliodas' panic-stricken expression as the lad stares, unmoving until she turns and looks at him. She expects him to do this and that's all he needs to kick himself into action. If Elizabeth wants, he will read his letter out loud to every person they pass, to him, humiliation is a legitimate way to atone. He puts the bike on its stand, removes his helmet, takes hers to stack beside his and removes the letter from the compartment.

The young woman is proud of Meliodas but notices his trepidation as he gazes at the side of the trailer. She asks him, "what did you do to her, just break up in a bad way?" Elizabeth does remember what he told her, but this is a way for her to get more information. The young woman feels a little as if she is going in blind and is more comfortable with staying by the bike because of it.

Meliodas had not told her the details. The lad barely remembers them as he was strung out at the time and he counts that a sin. Derieri and Meliodas had been at a rager with pills and coke passing between hands quicker than the joints, smoke filled the room so everything is hazy in a multitude of ways. She'd been uncomfortable with the open sex, the sharing of partners and the harder drugs. Derieri asked if they could go, he refused with too many substances numbing his aches. They had a fight, he pushed her, telling her to stop following him around if she couldn't hang, that she wasn't 'helping him forget her anymore'. He never looked back when he left her there.

"I hurt her." He confesses to Elizabeth. "It was different from how I hurt you," The lad signs stopping with a sudden wide-eyed, mouth open gape as he processes the thought of trying to ease her nonexistent jealousy over him physically hurting another woman. '_I'm so fucked.' _Meliodas' nose flares, "I swear, if I ever even consider hurting you again I will bash my own face wi-"

Elizabeth catches his alarmingly violent signs mid-air, pulling his hand to her collar bones and smiling softly to him. Her other hand comes up to try and fix his hair, to make him more presentable as she whispers with her thick voice "Yew won't ever hurt may." Her tongue pokes out in concentration as his locks won't listen, but he absolutely does. He hears her every word as if absorbing it for nourishment before a long winter hibernation and she drops his hand from her grip to add the other to her fight against his bedhead.

The lad's face changes into tender adoration. Her hands fall away and she gives him a wry grin with a little 'I tried' shrug.

He parts from her, finding strength in having her a few feet away. Meliodas climbs the sagging steps, approaching the torn screen door with a heavy breath. The letter in his hand feels heavy between his fingers and he taps at the door with his knuckles. Dogs bark, a man hollers and there is a commotion of sound that makes him step back from the entrance. The door cracks open, a nose and an eye appearing through it, the older woman recognizes him with a long, exasperated sigh then turns, smacking behind her until a dog gives a whining yelp.

"She's not here. Haven't seen her in a few days." The woman comments and she shuts the door, snapping the chain lock in place. Yelling "Meliodas is here, told 'em you aren't." The lad looks over to see a faded purple blanket sway over a window. Meliodas thought Derieri would realize he heard her mother, that she would come out but after another moment he returns to Elizabeth, telling her everything.

Elizabeth considers things, asks to take the letter and he doesn't hesitate to give it. With determined steps, she walks to the front door, knocks and Meliodas watches as the older women opens the door wide for Elizabeth. He can't hear from the distance and finds his feet moving toward her, as she's _speaking_. In mere seconds she's granted access to their house but by the time Meliodas rushes to the landing, the door is shut once more. Meliodas checks the knob and it's locked. Immediately a phantom hand reaches up from his gut to grip around his heart, it squeezes painfully.

The young man understanding on a deep level that Elizabeth can maneuver this situation. '_I trust her'._ Meliodas remembers the last time he was inside this trailer. The suffocating amount of dog hair, the cramped space with overly large furniture and the punch holes in the walls. He wonders if it's different, or cleaner but in the end, he moves dreadfully slow back to lean against his older motorcycle.

Seemingly hours later, when it truly has been under half of one, Elizabeth emerges and he barely notices Derieri in the doorway waving her off with a grin. "Text may!" Elizabeth yells and his lips twist at the sound as he looks her over, from the tips of her black boots and up the slopes of her calves to the swell of her hips until he meets her eyes glowing with warmth. She's bold, coming right to him and his breath catches as she leans in as if to kiss him but Elizabeth pulls away an inch from the mark. When she leans back, her helmet is in her hands and he pinkens, realizing she had simply needed what was behind him.

"She's wonderful. I see why you loved her." Elizabeth signs, after placing the helmet over her face. The mouth guard and visor obscuring most of her expression. Meliodas isn't sure if he ever had loved Derieri, he starts to explain that when she grabs his helmet, leaning in again. The contact steals his breath but his lungs restart when the headgear is shoved into his chest. "Come on, I want you to teach me how to drive this thing." She signs and when they are on the bike again, Elizabeth around him, the lad wonders what happened in that trailer that made her different with him.

Something occurred.

At the abandoned parking lot of an old drive-in theater, the two stop so Elizabeth can take the helm. Her excitement is catchy, she's vibrating almost as much as the bike and her eyes show how wide her smile is under the front guard of her headgear. Meliodas points, signs and demonstrates as best he can. When he feels he's told her everything she needs to know he asks her to go slow, sliding against her to sit at her back.

Meliodas leaves a few inches betwixt her and his member as he fears he will come spontaneously if her round curves are shaking against him for any prolonged period of time. He isn't sure where to grab but Elizabeth sees him in the mirrors, his hands raising and she laughs, their helmets tapping when her neck tilts back from the joyous sound. She grabs his wrist, pulling it around her center, she feels his chest rumble at her back but she excuses it as the engines shake.

Meliodas holds on as Elizabeth propels the machine forward. She panics as they jolt, hitting the brake just as quickly and he catches himself on the tank in front of Elizabeth so he doesn't squish her as the two are whipped around from the quick shift in momentum. The bike starts to tip to the side and Meliodas puts his feet down, holding it steady before she catches her breath and tries again. He is patient with her, adjusts her hold, encourages her to explore what the bike is capable of and she's worlds better after an hour of kind corrections.

"Drive around the block," Meliodas suggests, feeling strange signing with her between his body and his motions. She understands and shakes her head 'no, no, no' but she does agree to take a lap inside the old drive-in theater. A car couldn't fit with the cement guard blocks in the way but their bike can squeeze in. A chain link fence surrounded the area, metropolitan office buildings around it and the pavement here is cracked, raised up and in general disrepair.

He is holding on and because he does not wish to distract her, does not have time to warn her about the unevenness of the asphalt. Her ass wiggles back, making contact with his hardness and he hopes she doesn't notice as he shifts to the side so it isn't directly touching her. She does amazing leaning into the curves and they do a second lap with her handling the bike like a pro until they take a corner wide and the front tire dips into a pothole, locking the handles.

Meliodas and Elizabeth are objects in motion, unable to stop as they fly. The young man doesn't let go, gripping her to him and spinning in the air for him to take the brunt of the impact. His back and side make contact with the hard ground and Meliodas uses all of his strength to encompass her. Elizabeth lands on top of Meliodas, her shoe kicks off as her body twists over his. She essentially uses him as a sled without a lick of snow to cushion the poor lad.

She's tangled in him, gripping him close until they come to a halt. He groans, pained and stunned as Elizabeth scrambles off him. In a panic she unzips his jacket, tugging up his shirt to look him over. Her soft fingers touch at his abs and sides, making him moan in a completely different way, the lad arches from the contact while panting for air. His hands come to his helmet tugging at the straps and tossing the thing away as he can't breathe, the sensations too much for him to function. His wild eyes meet hers through her visor and her skin leaves him to remove her own headgear.

As soon as there is a reprieve from her touch, he grunts to a seat, reaching for her. Just as she sets her helmet down, he tugs at her arm, pulling it straight and looking her over. The young man notes her missing shoe and that one of her pretty little hair bows is gone. She is unharmed, but the rub of torn fibers of her jean has him tugging her shoeless leg into his lap and he rolls up her jeans past her knee to look the joint over. Elizabeth signs to him, but he's barely focusing as it is, with adrenaline still coursing.

When he is satisfied, he tugs her pant leg straight again, wincing to stand as he hides his slight limp to gather up her shoe. Meliodas walks farther on still, into a patch of grass growing up form the lot to pick up her hair bow. She's standing having walked after him and he turns back to find her. He drops to his knees before her, picking up her little foot to push her shoe back in place, his thumb rubbing over her ankle before rising to reclip her hair decoration.

Elizabeth starts to cry, alarming the boy enough for him to finally meets her eyes and they are like endless oceans in their swirling depths, he falls into them with no resistance. "I'm sowwy" she sobs and Meliodas shrugs a breath before she falls into him, her arms around his shoulders as she holds his head against her. His arms encircle her, her waist seeming so tiny as he breathes her in.

"I'm glad to take it for you, Elizabeth. It's one step closer to my redemption." Meliodas whispers into her oblivious ear.


	5. Lust

A/N: Same warnings apply- thank you for your reviews, you don't know how much they mean to me for this story in particular.

Chapter 5: Lust

Elizabeth is cute in her gym uniform. Meliodas likes to gaze at her, from her swaying locks to the little pokes of her hips down to the curve of her ankle, it's one of the only pleasures he allows himself. He notices her bruise from the bike crash on her knee as she jogs to him and he frowns at it. His entire side is roughed up, the bare flesh on his left side is more scraped and bruised than not, yet he would take double his own injuries to spare her the little she experienced.

'_I've marked her flesh again, caused her pain.'_ The young man internally berates himself for the thousandth time, his teeth grinding in his frustration. She comes right to him and he wonders how he has been blessed with her in this life.

Her blues eyes dance as she starts a story with her hands, she's moving them fast and all he makes out is a cat had gotten into her car from the open moonroof but the rest is lost in the dips of her collar bones and bounce of her round breasts. He feels as if their time is being taken from him when the teacher hollers for their attention, Mr. Twigo's scowl setting the mood for both the teacher and the young man.

Meliodas guides Elizabeth, explaining with his fingers "Our teacher is a mustached douchebag." And miming 'douchebag' had the both of them grinning. Meliodas marvels at her tilted lips and long creamy neck as they take their places among the other students. The skinny kid obviously forgot to throw his gym uniform in the 'to-wash' pile as he smelled of hot dog water and body odor. Meliodas trades places with Elizabeth when her cute little nose wrinkles discreetly, him closer to the stink than her.

Mr. Twigo divided them up by guys and girls, she goes with the girls to the right side volleyball net and as the boys are grumbling to the left Mr. Twigo calls his name. "You're captain" the teacher pauses as the stinky kid falls, skin skids loud against the polished floor echoing in the high ceiling and a few others groan in sympathetic pain. Another student tripped him, foot still outstretched. The teacher laughs, long and deep before he calls out the bully's name "Andre, you just earned yourself Captain opposite Meliodas," rewarding the aggression. Meliodas offers his hand to the stinky kid but he slaps it away with an indignant face, fuming in his embarrassment.

The two captains line up as they start calling out the picks for teams. Meliodas watches Elizabeth as she's put on a team, paying more attention to her than his group of students. But Meliodas is sure to pick the bullied kid first. After the boys are divided they get into position. Ban is on Meliodas' team and he elbows him in the bruised side with a grin. "What'cha looking at, Cap'n?" with an obvious mocking, sing-song tone, having spotted Meliodas' eyes following where they always do. He grows hot, realizing most of his team is looking to him. He is strategic about where he places his players so as they rotate servers there is always a tall student near the net.

When the first serve is made, Meliodas invests more interest in his game. He doesn't call out orders, he lets the students put whatever effort they want into the class. The young man doesn't feel he can yell 'focus' or 'get your head in the game' as he himself is torn, watching her. Elizabeth hops in the air to set up her teammate for a spike but the other girl, dark hair with caked makeup, scowls at her and lets the ball flop. Mr. Twigo yells at Elizabeth and Meliodas feels his back stiffen but as she can't hear it, he lets it go.

The first two games pass with Elizabeth getting beamed in the back of her head by her own teammates a few times. She's so kind, waving it off while Meliodas is steaming, noting Guila and Jericho's cruel smiles as they each took their turn. It's during the third game, the class is winding down when the game they were playing changes. Elizabeth's team lost their first two games and they have no chance to pull off a win with the third.

Meliodas and Andre are one win, one loss and the other students are more into the game than ever before while their captain is the opposite, barely noting what he is doing. The make-up girl body slams Elizabeth to intercept the ball on its descent to her, she skids on the floor and Meliodas takes a step to her before his teammate pushes him back into place. No one helps her up but she shines with determination and his chest swells with pride.

It gets worse as the bell gets closer and closer to signaling when to change their clothes. She's beamed in the head, a spike aimed back at her rather than over the net and Twigo pointedly ignores it. This teacher is of the notion that bullying toughens up the weak and he pegs Elizabeth as the weakest in his class in spite of what she's shown she is capable of. Mr. Twigo's own views blur his reality with the thick filter of preconceived notions he gazes through.

When Guila jumps for the ball, bringing her elbow down on Elizabeth's face, he reaches his limit. Her cry echoes, a shocked and pained call that touches Meliodas' soul. Part of the class laughs at the warbled sound. He stalks across the gym, ignoring Mr. Twigo and his protesting team to go to her. "We're done!" He hollers to the lot of them, reaching Elizabeth as the students around her step away in fear. Her eyes are filled with unshed tears, her jaw pinkens from the hit and he offers his hand to her. She doesn't hesitate to take it and he pulls her up and across the gym to stand before the doors of the lockers.

Farther away from the others, the young woman's tears fall. She pulls her hand from his rough one, the slim digits flowing through the air between them to tell him "I kept messing up, I wasn't fast enough and I lost us the games. I understand why they are angry with me." The young man's face blanks, he is stunned at her own interpretation of what was happening out there on the Volley Court. Meliodas' eyebrows drop in a scowl as he turns to look at them, the dark wrath usually still inside of him churns as he takes in the masses in matching accountability and uniforms.

Meliodas does not want to resort to violence, which is where he naturally leans, and instead focuses back on Elizabeth. Her tears are falling. Silent little droplets drip down her chin then catch on the bust of her shirt. She isn't looking at him and when her watch buzzes, she angles it before fearfully turning to the girl's locker room. Mr. Twigo is approaching, his stomps heavy while the students head this way, responding to the bell. Elizabeth wipes at her face hurriedly and he pulls her farther from the lockers as the teacher approaches.

"As captain, it is your job to lead your team!" Mr. Twigo starts, frustrated. "Your sole focus is on your task, not what's happening elsewhere and especially not on another court! I drilled this into you for years!" He ranted, the teacher reaches for him, thinking he had the type of relationship with the student to manhandle him like he did his other 'players'. But this young man had left the team and he isn't one of Twigo's 'boys'. When the young man side steps him, that notion becomes clearer, the teachers face grows red. "If I didn't have a meeting with that idiot principal I'd keep you all next block for that stunt!"

Some of the other students who had filed into the lockers emerged refreshed and some of the ladies had cruel smirks as they looked over to Elizabeth. Twigo dismissed Meliodas and Elizabeth, the two separating reluctantly. Inside the lockers, the young woman strips naked, grabbing her towel while making sure her earring is still inside her assigned cubby. No jewelry is allowed in the gym and in her hurry, she doesn't realize her locker didn't shut. Her shirt stuck out just enough to block the latch. Elizabeth is used to the silence of shutting things and she passes a few others exiting the showers with towels wrapped around them.

The group of girls initiates an impromptu, cruel, plan as they see Elizabeth's open locker.

Elizabeth tosses her gym clothes into the washing basket as a student rolls it past her, pushing the days soiled clothes to the laundry room beside Twigo's office. The young woman starts the water in an already damp stall and rinses off in the showers while holding her hair up and away so it wouldn't have to dry over again. She's toweling off when the bell rings, her watch buzzing to notify her and Elizabeth rushes to her locker to dress, but finds the door hanging open and her cubby empty- except for her backpack.

In the boy's locker room, Meliodas didn't have a single problem dipping under the cascade, tossing his clothes in the bin nor dressing. He's lacing his shoes when the second bell rings, the other guys walking between the rows of dividing lockers as they now had 3 minutes to get to class. He grabs his bag, stopping to use the bathroom stall beside the showers before waiting for Elizabeth in the gym.

The last students left, Twigo's office is dark as he left for his review and Meliodas waits knowing she had a late start in there. The young man rubs at his sore side, lifting his shirt to look at the bruise climbing up his ribs. He knows he'll heal and the pain is nice when he grows too intoxicated with her. It helps him deny himself. The two were officially late and Meliodas worries he missed her. The young man is walking to the girl's locker room doors while pulling out his phone when he knocks loud on the door. He had not forgotten she can't hear. The knock is for anyone else in there.

-You okay?- He messages and he cracks open the door to listen.

Soft whines are coming from inside and he cracks the door farther, yelling "Is anyone in here?" to warn any girl left behind. As soon as he steps inside he knows she's crying. He picks up his pace passing empty locker rows but following the sniffing, muffled cries to the open stalls. Her long hair is wet on the ends, clinging to her white towel wrapped around her core and tucked under her arms. The young man notices the bare flesh but he is focused on her needs and he curses himself for not being more in tune with how she felt after the Volleyball bullying.

Her tearful eyes meet his in the mirror over the sink, a shock of clear watery blue to concerned green. Elizabeth spins, shock chasing away her tears but in a blink, her lip quivers. There is a force in the young man he cannot resist as he drops his backpack with a heavy thump, closing the gap between them with long strides.

The young man doesn't know what to do once he reaches Elizabeth's side. He feels he can't embrace her with her being so close to naked. Meliodas tries not to look but over her shoulder, the mirror reflects the slope of her shoulders, the top half of her back, the curves of her towel covered rounded behind and the smooth skin of her legs. She adjusts her towel, keeping her arms down to hold the ends in place but the slit up her side parts just enough for Meliodas' lips to separate and a groan escapes him.

But then her hands move, close to her chest to keep her coverings in place. "Someone took my clothes, my shoes! The uniforms are gone... my mother's earring..." Her ceased tears fall anew and his shoulders stiffen. "It's the only one I have left." Elizabeth did not need to explain this as he remembers vividly what happened to her other as he's the one who destroyed it.

"Where have you looked?" Meliodas inquires, peering around to see if whoever did this simply scattered the items. At Elizabeth's quivering lip, he takes her hand and starts pulling her from locker to locker, checking each one to see if they open. He steps up to the bench and looks at the top of the dusty metal cubbies but there was only a dead mouse and balls of wispy lint.

Elizabeth's soft sniffs, shaking shoulders and gripping hand delivers harsh squeezes straight to his chest, the young man is aching for her, hoping to make just one thing better. His search is extensive, every locker pulled at, picked through and coming up empty. The showers were wet but he still walked through them and in the end, the two finished where they began standing empty-handed before the bathroom stalls. "It's Oh-kay" Elizabeth's quavering nasally voice chimes and the young man turns to her.

"No." Meliodas determines, staring into her so she will understand how serious he is. "Anyone being cruel, to you especially, deserves to be repaid the pain two fold. I'll find that earring. If I have to comb through this school, crack skulls or integrate every girl in our class, I will." Her lips part, her head shaking from side to side in denial, of the whole situation or his plan, he doesn't know. With her falling apart beside him he refocuses on his task as it helps the young man control his own building rage. He checks under the sinks, walks to the stalls and looks around the toilets.

In the center stall, in the soiled pot, the water is full of ripe yellow piss and her earring glints at the bottom. Elizabeth can tell he found something as his stance changes and he lets go of her hand. She leans in, her body pressed to the back of his to look over his shoulder. Her joy at seeing the blue orb earring is expressed with her rush of hot breath at his neck and her relieved chuckling. Elizabeth has no qualms with doing the dirty work to retrieve it, reaching forward and around Meliodas but the young man intercepts her thin wrist, pushing it back toward her core.

Meliodas turns to the toilet, scowls at the smell before he dives his hand into the urine. The orb moves from his movements and he slows, not wanting it to be sucked into the return hole. With gentle care, he pinches the hooked end between his fingers and pulls her heirloom free. The young man keeps his back to Elizabeth, outstretching his hand away from her as he walks it to the sink. With copious amounts of soap, he washes the earring first, then his hands and arms as he feels disgusting. He pulls paper towels free, setting the jewelry on the metal ledge before the mirror. The young man washes his hands over again, then plucks the earring up again to wash it another time.

Elizabeth pulls at his arm to guide him away from the sink, her eyes shining with adoration as he listens to her, shutting off the water. The young man holds the earring out to her but for a long, slow moment she just stares into him with that look and Meliodas waffles under it. Something in there, in her blue shining eyes, makes the young man's head lighten.

Then her little hand grips the end of her towel and tugs it free to let it pool around her ankles. For a moment he feels stretched as if he were seven feet tall and up here the altitude switches too quickly for Meliodas, the pressure too great. Breathing is impossible and his lungs burn.

The young man flinches, a late response. He freezes in place and fear invades his insides. '_She dropped it on accident.' _He lies to himself, refusing to look away from her eyes. From the edges of his vision, the smooth skin beckons him like a thousand sirens and his resistance crumbles. The pupils of the young man's eyes blow wide and he loses his battle with his will to be honorable.

To Meliodas she is perfectly formed. Her shoulders are drooped, her arms looped under her bosom and her one hand grips the wrist of the other just under her belly button shielding with a hand her most private flesh. Round heavy breasts with pink dusky nipples puckering toward him. Her waist is cut in, her hips flaring round with her legs toned. Elizabeth's skin is clear of scars without a single blemish sullying her form. Except for the sole mark, the one on her ear that this lad had given her himself, the thought crosses his mind and he meets her eyes again, guarded.

Big dripping tears form, her eyes clear pools of sadness that went on for miles and his heart hurt, but he couldn't look away. She reaches for him, revealing the pale hair over her core, a v between her poking hips. When her hand takes his, he is putty in her grip and she places his palm on her chest over her heart. His fingers spread across the silk of her skin and his lips part in a groan- as he can't. Meliodas' other hand fists, the earring digging into him from the strain and he uses that to deny his overwhelming desires. '_I can't touch her, not if I'm still planning on offing myself.'_

Meliodas is stuck, a stone statue of the lad he had been. Her eyes pinch closed as if anticipating a blow and Meliodas realizes how fast her heart is beating under his palm. He fears she is afraid and that's enough, just barely enough, for him to regain his senses. Meliodas flips his palm to interlace their fingers and he draws his flesh from hers to pull her to his bag.

He does not let go of her hand as he bends to his pack, unzipping his bag with two fingers as he is still holding onto her jewelry. Meliodas stops, holds out the earing to her and she accepts it softly, her blue eyes still dripping gloom. He watches from his crouched position as she wiggles the hooked thing back in her unmarred ear, her body bare before him. Her other ear has a pearly line scar on her lobe from him 'accidently' snagging his clothes on the earring. That is what she told their childhood teacher while sobbing and shaking with her blood trickling down her neck.

The lad turns away, his body hard and aching in too many variant ways. With a point of focus, he pulls out his work uniform, passing her his polo shirt and khakis in a wrinkled bundle while frowning over the fact that he didn't have shoes to give her. '_They wouldn't fit anyway' _he notes as he looks at her little naked feet so close to his.

She takes the bundle of his clothes and with a flush, turns. She lets go of him, his fingertips reaching and body leaning to prolong the touch. Elizabeth walks until she moves between a row of lockers to change in privacy. Meliodas stares at her ass, watching it sway and jiggle as she goes. He groans, loud and guttural as he grips the side of his hair, turns and slams his own head into the metal locker end to his right. "FUCK!" he bellows, knowing she can't hear it.

Too many things sear through Meliodas. To him, taking care of her came first and he stuffs his own desires deep into himself. She would have no idea who did this and even if she did what could they do? A slew of ideas came to Meliodas but all of them he dismisses as something he cannot do, his old self would but this one, he will simply pick up her pieces and put them together again. He will do it over and over for the rest of his life.

'_She wants me to touch her.' _He considers the new path she cleared for them and looking down the road sparks new emotions in him. Dangerous ones, like hope and excitement because he can see their life together so clearly. What he can have in life but he fears the cost to her if she accepts him. Meliodas is an addict, his addictions are vast and he still falls back on his greatest crutch whenever life gets too hard. She will alleviate so much of his burdens with her at his side but he doesn't want her to bare them for him.

Elizabeth's soft sniffling reaches Meliodas and he takes a step nearer her before stopping, doing an about face and tugging painfully as his chaotic blonde strands. '_She's dressing' _he chides himself but the young lady is already clothed. His pants are too short, her ankles showing from the ends but his shirt hangs off her shoulders, it smells like him and his name badge is still clipped over the pocket.

'_I know for sure now,' _Elizabeth thinks, '_he doesn't want anything I offer.' _She grabs her backpack, grateful that the perpetrators only took her clothes and shoes. Elizabeth is even glad they left her earring in the toilet as having it back is all she truly cares about. She twirls the thing in her fingers as she tries to calm herself. To her, she feels her classmates are mean because they can see her as what she believes she is, a burden. A hazard they are shackled with unwillingly. Elizabeth's thoughts darken as she thinks '_Meliodas is only around because of his teasing when he was a child. If that's all we have maybe I can use that.'_ But the young lady wipes at her face before coming out, forming a new strategy.

"Did they take anything else?" He signs to her, looking over her and he is not shocked in the least that she looks so good in his clothes. Her eyes are red-rimmed, glassy in their shine and her lips quiver but she's the embodiment of everything good in his world.

"No." She signs and for a moment Meliodas thinks she's denying his thoughts but he shakes himself, remembering what he asked. He holds out his hand, nervous and Elizabeth gazes at the rough palm offered to her once more with confusion. A little wrinkle forms betwixt her brows. Elizabeth takes it, his warmth spreading up her arm and she breathes easier with the contact, like the heaviness she carries equals between them. As if he takes some of the weight for her.

Meliodas leads her, and her steps are lighter as she follows, gripping him in her hand as her tears dry. The halls are empty, classes started long ago but the two are not heading to their classroom with Mr. Hawk. Elizabeth notices but doesn't sign a word about it, trusting him. As they reach the doors to exit the school by the side entrance, the lad looks back, down at her little feet and flips his backpack to be worn on the front of his chest. He signs, "Climb on."

"No." She signs her retort, knowing her plus her backpack is too much weight.

"Trust me. Your feet will get all cut up. City streets are brutal." Meliodas bends and her blue eyes grow wide as she looks down at her naked toes. Broken bottles do litter the sidewalks along with discarded needles and general trash. Simply walking down the halls her feet feel gritty. "Hop on. I got you." He signs and she bites her lip, sighing before stepping forward to wrap her arms around him from behind. She gasps, breathy and soft as Meliodas grips her thighs and stands in a smooth move. The noise stirs the lad up inside and his own noise escapes with frustration.

"After this, cross meh off your list." Elizabeth whispers, accented but the lad basks in the feel of her breath on his cheek, of her voice so soft for just him to hear. He can't reply, his hands held her up and if he spoke she will not hear so he doesn't. He walks down the steps of the quad with her body pressing to his and he feels he could walk miles like this with her cheek pressed to the side of his head and her thighs wrapped around his hips. '_Her feet are too good to touch any of the grime this world has left behind'_ he determines to himself, watching the sidewalk and her little feet sway with his steps.

Elizabeth holds him tighter, tucking her face into his hair. Silently, she suffers, like she does the whole of her life. She has a notion that Meliodas has enslaved himself with his own guilt, that if she were smarter or better she could free him of her. She would know then if he wants to be around her or if he is doing it to absolve his imagined sins.

He keeps his steady pace but his breathing changes as he nears her neighborhood, his muscles starting to feel the bite of overuse. She speaks soft and throaty "I cun walk." But Meliodas shakes his head from side to side, adjusting his grip on her to prevent aches on her thighs. Up higher, with her supple leg in his palm, he knows he will never be able to wear his work khakis without thinking of her.

In front of her house, she leans, unlatching the gate and together it opens before he carries her up to the front door. Meliodas is tired but he wishes at that moment that she lived another mile away so he could continue to hold her against his body in such an unassuming way. As her feet touch down on the wooden planks, Meliodas shucks his backpack from his front to loop over one of his shoulders.

"Wait." Elizabeth signs, adjusting her own bag to gather her keys. She opens her storm door, her dangling baubles clanking as she fits the right key to the lock. Without admonition, Elizabeth reaches for and grips Meliodas shirt sleeve and pulls him inside along with her. She tosses her backpack on the bench, shuts and locks the door before she signs to him, "I have to give you your uniform back."

Meliodas puts his bag beside hers, differing from last time, her bright one next to his old black one. She heads up the stairs, not brave enough to ask if he wanted to come to her room as she feared another rejection. The lad is awkward, looking around her living room and knowing he is here alone with her makes his heart race and palms sweat.

He wanders, looking at the pictures of Elizabeth as a child, remembering a time when she had been that small. It's tidy in here but it's quiet and he remembers what he read in her notebook about being lonely without her sisters because her father works so often. Elizabeth's faint steps tap in the hall above and he adjusts to stare as she comes down the steps, dressed in leggings and a long shirt. She had his clothes folded in her hands and when she reaches him she holds them out.

The uniform is maneuvered into his bag when he grips the handle, intent to go but she stands at his side, waving her hands to get his attention. "Thank you." She signs, her smile is fake and he knows why. He hadn't meant to but he hurt her today too. "You carried me home and saved my mother's earring."

The girl goes to her backpack, pulling out her notebook and when she goes to Meliodas' he simply watches as she pulls out his own pad. It is bright enough in here from the open windows and sheer coverings but she flips on the lamp as she takes a seat on her couch. She pats the cushion beside her as she flips open her list. He doesn't deny her, he can't.

_-Ride a bike_

_-Dance to an audience_

_-Make a friend_

Are all crossed off. She shows him the tallies but he frowns at the list and the remaining items.

_-See the ocean_

_-Go on a date_

_-Have memorable sex_

Elizabeth flips his notebook to be on top and opens up to his list. She points to her name. She pulls the pencil from the spiral of her notebook to hand to Meliodas. It's obvious what she wants him to do and with anyone else, he would be frustrated having to tell her this over again, but it's Elizabeth and he understands. The other names on his list are just filler, as long as her name is on this page he has a reason to continue on.

"You've done so much!" She signs, tears springing forth so quick he knows they were just barely contained under the surface. "You help me every day in school. I have three things marked off because of you. You carried me home today." Her hands fall away as she speaks, her accent heavier because of the emotions in her throat, "Pleese Meliodas."

He pinches his eyes closed, hating that she pleaded using his name. For a fleeting moment, he raises his hand as if about to swipe off her name but when the pencil hovers over it he gets a flash of memory. A time when little Elizabeth handed little Meliodas a note about coming over after school, he'd told her "I don't want to see your stupid house". But little Elizabeth accepted that, smiling so weakly as she asked: "I go to your house?" Her voice had been higher back then, struggling with an effort to enunciate. What had he done? He can't pull up the next line up of events but she had cried, pleaded like she is now about something.

"No." He tells her, shaking his head from side to side. "I will spend the rest of my days trying to fix what I've broken." He means it, for the first time in weeks he accepts that he is going to live, regretfully, and his chest squeezes with panic. Self-murder is no longer an option. He's known for a while. Around the time Elizabeth accepted his letter, but coming to terms with it causes his head to throb with a sudden headache. A rush of plans change, a sudden shift to fears of the future, of alternative ways of living and a new list starts to form of things he needs to change about himself and his life.

Living and everything it entails is an excruciating pressure.

One single silver lining existed and he turns to her now, his green eyes glassy as the weight of his world overfills him to the point that his own eyes brim with tears. Her hand's stop, her lips part, and her chin trembles. He drops the pencil, the plastic slaps at the paper but he raises his palms to cup her cheeks, wiping away her sorrow. A few of his own tears fall, his tongue wetting his lips as he asks out loud "Elizabeth, would you like to go on a date with me?"

She flinches out of his grasp, a rush of breath escaping her and he watches her hands move, confirming what he just asked with confusion on her face. Meliodas didn't blame her, he's been all over the place when it comes to her. But if he is going to endure living with himself for however long his body lasted in this world, he can explore this road with her. Her eyes fall to her list before they rise, grief and worry in her blue orbs thinking '_it's just another thing he's trying to atone for, by picking something to do off my list'._

A few options of things to do with her came to mind but he asks, "What do you want to do?" She wipes at her face, sniffing prettily before a choked laugh leaves her. Elizabeth grins over at him, her eyes crinkling but shining with resignation. Something is wrong but he can't put his finger on it and when her eyes twinkle with life his chest relaxes. His breaths come easier.

"I'll text you some ideas later." Elizabeth signs. She moves the notebooks to the coffee table, the pencil joins the pads and she settles back into the couch facing away from him. She's absorbing the sad situation she found herself in. '_Meliodas is trying to finish my list.'_ Elizabeth thinks, believing there is no other reason for his involvement with her. '_He's a slave to my whims and I'm too desperate to correct this.' _But the young woman hopes if she can satisfy him in other ways that he will not feel slighted.

Meliodas flounders. With her acceptance of his date offer, it's like all the windows of the dank rooms in his soul have opened and cool summer winds were finally blowing in. Yet, her shoulders are hunched, her ears pink and her fingers play at the bottom strands of her hair as if afflicted with a nervous tick. He touches her leg and her neck tilts to see him.

"Your list." He starts. "You crossed off 'dance to an audience'. I would have liked to see you perform." His signing end and her pupils expand as the apples of her cheeks glow warmly. A little surprised gasp escapes her and she laughs but it sounds like half a sob.

"You didn't miss it." She signs back, her sunken shoulders bob up in a shrug as she tries to smile. He is confused but knows he's hurt her somehow again, he thinks he's navigated the situation poorly and that's why her shine is dimming. "I danced on my bed." She signs. Elizabeth can tell he doesn't understand and helps the lad out with the extra explanation.

Almost immediately Meliodas hand flies through the air, not to speak in her language but to slam his palm into his forehead. The hit cracks through the air but Elizabeth doesn't hear it. She giggles, the sound following his and he looks, watching the stunning joy on her face for a moment before it fades.

"The curtain moved every morning because you were waiting for me." Meliodas signs, putting two and two together that his peeping sessions each morning were actually favors, freely gifted. She nods, slow and shy. For a long moment, the young man refuses the information. His brain simply kicks offline. '_She danced for me, wanted me to see her... Elizabeth shouldn't like me but she's drawn in too. I can't save her.'_

His tears squeeze out, hurting from disuse as his usual outlet for his emotions is bittersweet instigated violence. A part of him wishes he is being beaten rather than watching this unfold. He doesn't want her to like him, she is so soft in her gentle hints to him but dancing for him and dropping her towel for him went beyond what he could rationalize. He knows those are brave actions coming from her. '_Maybe I won't ruin her. I can be better for her, I'll try to live up to the version of me she sees.'_

"Kizz me." Elizabeth implores, her voice awakening him into action. He leans across the entirety of the gap between them, his hands on either side of her head with his fingers in her locks over her ears. His palms are slick from her tears but he doesn't care, he's wanted to kiss her since the two were in sixth grade. Yet, centimeters apart, he stops, his glassy green gazing into her shining blue. She closes her eyes, pressing forward just enough for her lips to brush along his.

'_Like a rose petal,'_ he thinks.

Something inside Meliodas unhitched, as if his heart had been anchored but with her gentle brush it comes untethered and floats up. An elation fills him and he feels lighter, but he isn't finished with her. His kiss to her is firm, his bottom lip between hers so he could be closer, so a part of him would be inside of her.

Elizabeth is shaking, sparks igniting and she wonders briefly if the guilt of using him will kill her. '_If I take more from him, using his drive to compensate for what he feels he's done, will he finally let the past go? Will this help him or hurt him in the end?' _With his lip between hers, she feels her core pulse with arousal and she pushes her own shame down deep. Elizabeth's desires heighten and she shakily reaches forward to grip at the front of his shirt.

She takes a shuddering breath, inhaling him and he takes advantage, feeling her bottom lip betwixt his to worship her plump flesh. He breathes through his nose, focused on his task as he explores the delicate petal of her lip. He savors her while she's bracing for the onslaught of sensations coursing through her core. She's never been this aroused before and it's just a kiss. Elizabeth thinks since she's already gone this far in using his guilt against him, what's another step into the manipulation?

She wants it to be good for him. So she uses her mouth to caress him, pressing closer and she parts her lips to feel the hot rush of his breath. He doesn't resist as she dips her tongue into him, her weight leaning into his torso until he is forced to fall back against the cushions, her form squirming over his. Meliodas' body is finely-tuned to her, sometimes the curve of her neck makes him hard but this is beyond what he has ever hoped for. She's on top of him.

Her noises are uninhibited, faint, needy and Meliodas reacts, his hands moving from her head to explore down her back. Elizabeth's hip moves and she makes contact with his hard member. He groans, trying to maneuver himself away from her, so it doesn't scare her or touch her, but she moans into his mouth. A guttural throaty sound unlike any he's heard before. A pure, true reaction. He's lost. The young man flips them on the couch in a strong twist, picking her up with his hips and grip to position her under him.

He attacks her mouth, lining their bodies up and her thighs accommodate him. She tastes like cool water, a refreshing hint of springtime while the world is heading toward winter. Her body entices him and although he holds himself up with one arm his other moves to her collar bone, just to trace the line across her silken flesh. He stretches his tongue into her, feeling her little one with his, liking the rush of feelings that invade at first contact.

Her hands are braver than his with her primal drive taking control. Elizabeth's tender touch dips under his shirt at the waist and she feels along his hips, going up rather than down and Meliodas is thankful for it as he fears he cannot handle much more than this. He feels as if he is a stuffed animal bursting with packing fill to the point that his seams are ripping apart. If he listens carefully he can hear the threads of himself snapping.

"Elizabeth." He breaths, as they break to pant heavy breaths. She doesn't hear him though, angling for his neck and when her rose petal kisses touch at his skin he tilts his head for her to have better access. "Yes." He hushes to deaf ears. His hand on her collar bone feels lower, the first touch of her supple breast in his hand has him growling like an animal. She giggles, her lips curving along his neck. Elizabeth had felt his chest rumble with the sound.

That's not the only sound at that moment. A door opens and shuts nearer the back of the house and Meliodas scrambles away, wide-eyed and flushed as he pulls her up, straightening her shirt before he straightens his own. She's confused, hurt, but he signs fast, "Someone is here." But rather than understanding, fear fills her eyes and her little hands grip each other over her lap.

The young man reacts, standing and heading toward the noise from the kitchen. He figures, from her reaction, that its someone who shouldn't be here but when he turns the corner to the dining room he sees her father. He's untucking his tie from his throat, his shoes are off and tossed by the back door beside his laptop bag. The man looks up, surprise and mischief play in his eyes as he says "I wasn't expecting you here, Meliodas. I'm sure you can say the same for me coming home early, huh?"

There is an obvious undertone of suspicion that Meliodas has been here before while Bartra's at work, but that assumption is untrue. They both turn toward the living room at the sound of the floor creaking and Bartra laughs. "She's a horrible sneaker." The love in her father's eyes warms Meliodas as her head pokes into the archway. As soon as she sees who is here her face brightens but her fathers hardens. He signs "You've been crying again?"

Elizabeth waves his concern away and they both look to Meliodas. "Stay for dinner!" Bartra insists and he opens the fridge, nonchalant but the young man is unsure until Elizabeth's hand takes his, her creamy skin a balm to his worries. They eat and he leaves for work when the time nears. His uniform smells like her and all through his shift he can't stop touching his lips. He can't believe they kissed, it changes him, his life having so much meaning and there are so many things to do yet he can't muster the same anxiety about it because he's claimed her mouth.

He wants all of it, everything that came along with life- alongside her.

.X X X.

Elizabeth wore jeans and a t-shirt since he drives a bike. They arrive, untangling and unstrapping their helmets, jackets folded under the seat compartment before they go inside. The disinfectant smell, the vibrant laser light carpets and modern pop playing over top the crashing of bowling balls hitting pins are jarring when the two first walk in. They trade in their shoes, Meliodas paying the few dollars for the game and pushing away Elizabeth's offering of money.

"I'll get the food then." She signs and he doesn't respond as they sit on the bench putting on the multi-colored clown-like shoes. Sweetly, she taps her shoe to his when she's finished and he smiles to her ankles before following her body up to her eyes. This is their first date, another thing to mark off her list and they both are nervous. He has been on other dates before but Meliodas feels this one is the only important one he's been on while Elizabeth feels anxious as she still believes he's here against his actual will.

Him paying made her guilt amp up. It's why she had chosen the bowling alley because a game for two people is under ten dollars. Elizabeth hadn't thought about the location much and as they make their way to the food counter to order some microwaved bar food she sees a face that causes her tummy to twist. She clutches at her bag, recognizing the light hair falling long around his broad shoulders. She had a crush on him but it ended badly, so badly she looked around to make sure that his brother wasn't here as the situation would grow much worse for her if he is.

Immediately she wants to leave but as she turns to Meliodas it's their turn to order. He goes first and she pulls out her notepad to write her order, rushing it on the paper. With shaky hands, she passes it over to the person behind the counter. The girl taking their order is a little older, a net over her dyed black hair in a high ponytail. She's already in a bad mood when she takes the note, reading the order with a frown. "What's wrong with you?" The lady asks, patting at the front of her apron while looking between the two.

"She's perfect." Meliodas answers but Elizabeth is looking to the cafe worker with confusion. She hadn't caught what she said fully. The girl shrugs, telling them vaguely that their order will be up in fifteen minutes. He signs it to her, unzipping his dark hoodie and pulling it off to show his red t-shirt with a band logo on the front, worn and faded.

Elizabeth leads them to the opposite side of the bowling alley away from where she recognized her old 'friend' and she's calming as they pick balls and claim a lane. She enters their name into the computer prompt screen as Meliodas watches her, his side leaning against the center console. He can tell she's nervous and he finds it endearing, thinking it is because she likes him, misplacing her reasons for the flushing. She is so shaken up that she forgets about paying for the food when Meliodas goes to collect it.

The two sit at their table, across from one another as their game blinks for the first player to toss their ball overhead on the T.V. assigned their lane. She relaxes as they share her french fries and his onion rings, eating their own sandwiches. Elizabeth feels better as the minutes wear on uneventful, and she tells him with her hands after using her napkin, "Thank you for doing this."

Meliodas isn't sure why she's thanking him, he finishes himself, cleaning up before he signs back confused "Thank you for dating me." He smiles and she matches his expression with a little less guilt about the whole thing. '_Maybe he'll have enough fun to want to date me again, or to be my boyfriend.' _Elizabeth dismisses her own thoughts, a doubt slivering in that '_no, he's only my friend because he used to play rough and he's only here now because he found my stupid list.'_

If the young man knew how dark her thoughts went, his joyous mood would extinguish. He feels like his life is coming to a head, a turning point and having Elizabeth before him, even with her nerves it made all the dark places of him seem easily manageable. '_I can face my demons for her. Elizabeth's existence makes me strong and her wanting me in this way is beyond my wildest dreams,'_ he thinks. He slowly pulls her from her nerves with jokes and teases, Meliodas even tries his hand at flirting.

Elizabeth is lining up for a toss, her swirly white and orange ball on her hand as she tiptoes to the right. Her round ass wiggling an adjustment, as she has for each of her throws, which he appreciates every time. She's horrible at this, but her smile and laugh at each of her gutterballs endears her more to him. This ball goes wide and curves left, her little feet bouncing high and her head moves as if that will control the ball as it taps the endpin and knocks it over.

She spins to face him, her hands up high and she speaks "Yeah!" It's barely warbled, a true burst of joy and his head falls back as he laughs at her absurd happiness over a single pin falling. He is standing already and when she rushes to him he doesn't hesitate, just steps to meet her and wraps her up in a celebratory hug. They part just as quickly, skin lingering but he grabs his flat red ball from the return machine's looping metal catch-all. He's lined up, readying to toss it, ball loose in his grip and he hears her name being called just as he releases.

Meliodas turns, curious, not watching his toss. She is though, bent to look around him with a smile on her face to watch and she is exuberantly happy as he knocks them all down. Elizabeth rushes him, looping her arms around his shoulders and points with a laugh. He smiles, trying to be happy about it while distracted by the dark-haired man smirking over at her. Meliodas correctly assumes he is the man that called out to her.

The man's hair is tied in a messy bun, he's twirling a set of Bentley car keys in his hands and his shoes are brand new high tops that he obviously takes great care with. Elizabeth notices Meliodas is not responding and she drops her loose embrace to look over to where his gaze is directed. She yelps, high and alarmed, stepping back from the man in the distance almost behind Meliodas. Slowly, the man raises his hands, keys still between his fingers and signs to them.

"Enjoy my sloppy seconds." The man knows Elizabeth's body and looks over it with mild interest, winking at her before moving on. He pulls out his phone, calling his brother to meet up quick to drive him and his friends home. With her here he can't stay.

As soon as the signs register, Elizabeth gasps and Meliodas turns away from the intruder understanding pretty quickly that whoever that guy is, he is for sure an asshole. He's gone but Elizabeth stares after him until Meliodas' hand takes hers. She's brought back to reality and slowly she grimaces, her shoulders hunching. "Do you want to leave?" He asks her and she reads his lips.

"Yeah." She breaths in answer and Meliodas leads her to their things. They toss their tray of extra food and trash in a bin before she points to the restrooms. Elizabeth dips in, fighting her tears and Meliodas stands as close as he can to the door so he can listen in for anything going on within. He sees that same guy again, with another about their age. His hair is light blonde and he's pushing at his brother when the dark-haired man grabs his shoulder. It seems to have surprised the other. They sign, and it's something Meliodas can understand from a distance.

"Elizabeth is here." The bun-guys hands say and the other doesn't believe him. "I'm not kidding. I can't be here. If she calls the cops I'm doing time for being within 300 feet of her, so get your shit, I'm not waiting." The other guy listens, a couple with them also gathers their stuff and head to the shoe return.

Elizabeth exits, eyes red and his stomach flops. '_This date has gone very poorly' _he thinks as he asks her who that was and what was going on to buy the other group time to get their shoes and leave by the time they made their own way out. She bites her lip, looking so contrite before her blue eyes glisten with unshed tears and her hands start a tale he didn't want to hear but forced himself to listen too.

Mael and Ludociel both went to her old school, the all deaf school. They are brothers and they had a wager about her, one she didn't know about. Last year, the two pursued her. At the end of it, at a party, Ludociel and her hooked up. "I liked Mael, genuinely but Ludociel and I were so drunk it just happened." Elizabeth hopes that will be enough for Meliodas but his brows furrowed.

"Why can't he be within 300 ft of you?" He asks.

"The lawsuit," Elizabeth explains. "He took pictures as proof to show his brother, from the bet they had." Meliodas' head tilts, his hair shifting to the side as his eyebrow raises. She takes a steadying breath, eyes pinching as she signs "It would have been fine but he sent them to his brother and friend, who sent it on and on until it seemed the whole school knew what I looked like naked."

The young man's wrath boils, he turns from Elizabeth suddenly hoping the group hadn't left the parking lot as he wanted to wail that douchebags face into the concrete. '_This is why she had 'memorable sex' on her list, she'd been drunk and with the pictures, she wouldn't like thinking back to it. He'd used her.' _Meliodas is fuming, hitting a level of anger he hasn't in months.

Elizabeth's steps follow him, quick and when she catches up to him storming toward the exit she grabs at his bicep. For a moment, he almost rips it from her grip but he calms, stopping with her soft tug. Her eyes are wide, fearful and she shakes her head from side to side in a no. "Pleaze", she begs, her voice just above a whisper. "No." And that's it for him.

"Okay." He relents, his eyes swirling with anger but his body calms with her touch. Meliodas stares, memorizing her troubling expression, the slope of her sweet lips and the curve of her nose before he can't take it anymore. Her eyes are shining but she's not crying and she moves closer to him as if she can read his mind and knows he needs to kiss her. He angles up to meet her, kissing her again. He's calm as he feels her soft lips. He doesn't know that her sorrow makes her lips more giving, supple from the emotion, but they taste the same and they are the most addicting thing he's ever encountered- and he's tried many substances.


	6. Gluttony

Chapter 6: Gluttony

Meliodas is falling back on old habits. Dark desires swirl in the young man. He finishes moving the front display of creamed spinach into a tower of cans, heading to the back to clean out the storage room for Grocery-marts restocking shipment tomorrow. His worn shoes pad softly across the tile floor when he catches sight of a lithe form with long light hair out of the corner of his eye down an aisle. He stops, stepping back to look again and his lips tip up in a smile.

She did say she would switch grocery stores for him. He strolls over, her cart at her side as she reaches up, the bottom of her shirt rides up to show a sliver of her flesh at the waist.

The two have been hesitant with one another for an entire week, especially so at school. Last weekend they only text messaged and neither have mentioned the horrible first date, but it is crossed off her list. They haven't kissed again, but he holds her hand when Diane is around, the other girl getting the message that they were together. In response, Diane is distant with them both and Elizabeth misses her.

Meliodas reaches out, touching her elbow and she flinches, her hip hitting the cart and it taps against the food shelf. Elizabeth is happy to see him, she hoped when she left with her father's list of groceries this evening that she would get to see him for a few moments. She worries as they haven't made plans for this weekend, the second in a row.

"You came to see me." Meliodas signs, grinning and she pinkens, her soft skin glowing from her overwhelming tenderness for him. Elizabeth fumbles into the pocket of her pants, pulling out her list and she smiles shyly.

"Are you busy?" She signs, worrying that she will take him away from things he needs to do, she does not feel important enough to interrupt him. The young man shrugs, not even thinking about it as he shakes his head no while motioning with his hand to take her list. Meliodas knows this store as he stocks it every evening. She pushes the cart and he finds her items, the two brushing bare arms when they adjust things in her cart. They share a look, a long gaze of connection, and they both feel happier just being near the other.

At the cash register, Meliodas is proud. Gladys is on check out duty, an old lady who suffers from arthritis and often asks for 'walk breaks' where she just moves around the place a bit. He tells her "This is Elizabeth," signing to his girl as the old woman scans the things on the belt. Meliodas bags for her, asking Gladys "Can I walk her out, it'll be just a moment."

"Of course, dear." The older woman relents, her soft face smiling at the two. Meliodas loads up her cart and Elizabeth uses her fathers card to pay for the items. "How did you meet our handsome young man?" Gladys asks Elizabeth but as she's typing in her father's pin on the card machine, she doesn't catch the lip movement.

"She's deaf," Meliodas explains flippantly, and Gladys smiles even brighter, her hand coming up to touch her cracked lips as she feels awe for these two young people.

"No wonder you've been studying sign language!" The woman waves them out and Elizabeth waves goodbye, smiling to Meliodas as he pushes her cart into the parking lot. She fumbles in her purse, as she didn't carry her backpack outside of school, to find her keys. He's never seen her car before, but when she hits the trunk button and a hatchbacks rear door opens a few cars up, he heads that way.

It's a newer car but it had a previous owner before her father had bought it for Margaret, who had passed it down to Veronica who then gave it to Elizabeth, so it isn't in the best shape. Meliodas puts her groceries in the back, noticing the mess scattered back here. Elizabeth apologizes for it and Meliodas finds her flushing hand motions captivating. When the bags are all inside he shuts the door with a firm pull.

"I'm glad I got to see you." He signs, his head tilting as he takes in her form and he wants to kiss her again but both times they kissed before she had made the move or asked him to. Meliodas can't bring himself to initiate, still feeling inadequate.

"Want to come over for a movie later?" She pulls the last of her bravery forth to ask, her face blooms in heat and her eyes drop to his shoes. Elizabeth curses at herself internally as he waves to get her to look up as he answers.

"I can't tonight." When her eyes dim he rushes to continue. "I want to see you, as much as possible, but I have a plan with Zeldris." The lad shakes his hands out, alarmed, "I made plans with my brother." It had been a Freudian slip, an accidental truth when he needs his plan to be flawless. She brushes it off, her smile hitches too high and he takes her cart, offering to walk it back for her.

He watches her go, looking at how her car moves and tilting his head to look at her brakes. Next opportunity he will look it over more thoroughly and tonight he will talk to Zeldris about using his shop to fix it up. Meliodas waves and she smiles through the car window, leaving the parking lot as he nears the glass sliding doors without looking away. He watches her car grow smaller down the street.

All this week he's had something else on his mind, been planning and stalking another. He decided to be a servant of justice. Elizabeth's father is fighting his own fight, a legal battle against Ludociel for 'technical child porn' due to his daughter's age and Ludociel being in college. But Ludociel's family had money, the lawsuit is swirling around a settlement. Her father is trying to teach the perpetrator a lesson and it's not working through legal means. This is where Meliodas believes he comes in.

When his shift is up, he clocks out, packs up and tells Gladys to have a good night. Zeldris is waiting for him, his Impala idling in view of Grocery-marts sole working camera. Meliodas gets to the door, faces the camera as he opens it and tosses his backpack into the back before slipping in. A plastic grocery bag is at his feet and as Zeldris pulls away his brother starts his coaching.

"Don't say a word." He commands, "No matter the temptation, you let your fists do the talking. Avoid taking any face shots or Gelda will be doing your makeup for weeks. You're staying with us until the heat passes and I swear to christ Meliodas if you get caught I'm beating the fuck out of you." Meliodas snorts, opening the bag at his feet. He strips from his work uniform, pulling out the dark clothes his brother gathered. "Don't kill him."

"I'll be repeating that mantra, over and over," Meliodas admits and the two green-eyed men share a look. Zeldris is worried, but not enough to put a stop to it. He is grateful that when his brother needed some help, he came to him and he doesn't want to do the wrong thing now to break that trust. He is going to tell Gelda- after it's over. The intensity changes in the cabins air and his brother relents, "I won't." He promises. Zeldris nods accepting him at his word.

Meliodas directs him while replacing his clothes and shoves his uniform in the bag. He pulls his hood up, the black looping scarf tight around his neck but he needs it to be, it would cover his face soon. "Phone," Zeldris demands, and Meliodas points to his backpack. He's clean and at the next light, they part as Meliodas opens his passenger side door and exits the car.

He runs, the streets shadowed in the night and he takes to the alleys, stepping over sleeping homeless and passed out junkies. Meliodas hops fences, going deeper and deeper into the city with one destination in mind. He has staked it out every evening this week and with it being Friday night the routine won't be off. Ludociel will be drinking with his frat buddies and after he'll call his ride. There is a five-minute window of time for Meliodas to slack his wrath upon him.

'_Not like my father.' _He grits his teeth at the thought. '_This is to punish, my enjoyment is secondary, it's for her. The difference is my motivation- love.'_ But to the young man, it sounds like an excuse. Briefly, he considers setting up another round of counseling sessions to dissect this but instead he decides to simply talk it through with Elizabeth after the deed is done.

Meliodas pulls the looped scarf up over his face so only his eyes show and part of his forehead. He wants to avoid any camera positively identifying him either approaching or fleeing the scene. It is a precaution he is taking so this does not lead back to Elizabeth, as her lawsuit is important to her. She's told him herself that it's the first time she's stood up for herself and all she's done is agree to go through with it. Elizabeth shook when she explained how she may have to take the stand if the case goes to trial, that she doesn't want to but her father is pushing for it.

The thought, the image of his lovely Elizabeth being so lost inside herself, brought forth all the strength he needed to scale the chain link fence that separates this alley from the next. In this new part of town the fences were there to keep the rougher folks out and today a very rough man enters their territory. It doesn't matter to Meliodas how much money Ludociel has and in his mind, Mael is just as guilty. Elizabeth had liked him and he played with her emotions over a wager, or that is what Elizabeth told him as that is what Mael had told her. The truth of the matter is that both brothers had wanted Elizabeth and rather than have any maturity about the situation, it got out of hand.

When Elizabeth confessed her feelings for Mael, Lucdociel had used the party and drinking to his advantage. Their act was truly consensual but him taking pictures had been for the sole purpose of keeping his brother away. Ludociel had not meant for the pictures to spread so far and his pride was wounded when Elizabeth still hadn't wanted him after they had their night together. Meliodas' girl had stolen their hearts and without her, the two brothers were struggling with their own roles in the matter.

Meliodas reaches the party house, cars parked in the lawn, across the driveway, and down the street. Using them as cover he walks to the side of it with nonchalance, as if he were just a party goer with his head down. With his back to the siding, he tiptoes and turns to look into the window. He knows the layout of the place by now and in the shadows he moves around the house, pulling out an unlit cigarette. There is a lighter in his pocket to blend in if someone walks past. He peeks through the windows until he spots his target.

Now it is the waiting game and for this Meliodas had boundless patience. He has nothing to do, seconds and minutes tick by as he imagines the unholy violence about to be unleashed on Ludociel. Meliodas feels he is well deserving but in a world of gray, Ludociel's 'crime' simply blends in with all the other sins of the world.

With no phone and nothing to do but focus on the issue at hand, Meliodas only has his thoughts for company. Elizabeth is a soft person, compassionate and Meliodas fears if he hospitalizes Ludociel she will drop the case from her own kindness. The music thumps loud, his chest reverberating the noise and he watches the people inside thrash and crash, chug beers and smoke blunts while keeping his eyes on the long-haired man inside.

The night wears on and Meliodas feels the air chilling, he is eager for the violence and as he tilts to spot Ludociel moving through the room, his scarf slips from his face. In the reflection of the window, for a heart-stopping second, he sees his father's face instead of his own. The bloodthirsty contempt, the upcurl of his lip and his bleak narrowed eyes. Meliodas steps back from the glass, his heart racing and stomach rolling. He turns, throat thickening and he heaves, vomiting mush across the dark grass.

Using the back of his sleeve, he wipes it from his face and Meliodas abandons his plans. '_I can't be like him.'_ He panics, as his feet pound across the earth and away from the temptations. Meliodas could fill himself with aggression but he wants to do better and if he does this he will not be moving forward with Elizabeth. '_I have to trust her, help her be strong when she faces this. I'll come back to my plans if the lawsuit doesn't work.'_

Meliodas is shaking when he reaches his brother's shop. Zeldris had waited through the night, suited up and working on an actual paying customers car. "You hot?" He asks while coming to a stand, looking his brother over. Meliodas steps across the cement floor, over discarded tools and when he's two feet in front of Zeldris they stare.

"I can't be like that anymore." Meliodas whispers and Zeldris is grateful that his brother has had a revelation, a personal breakthrough.

.X X X.

Elizabeth is walking Meliodas home, a first for the two of them. She's been distant and closed off the last four days of school and when he finally asked what was bothering her she shone those clear blue eyes at him and whispered in her low warbled voice "I didn't mean to make you date me."

The sound still circled in his mind. He thought of all the times he didn't kiss her, of the missed invitation to watch a movie, the lack of him asking her on another date after their last and he thinks he is a dumbass for not jumping at the chances she is giving him. In his panic, he asked her if she wanted to do something after school and she agreed. At the time he hadn't had a plan but when Diane never came to walk with her, again, she signed to him how excited she was to see his house.

Meliodas' mind is still reeling from the realization. He tried to deter her, that it was dirty and his mother is always strung out, that his father is never home. She waved it all away, her soft kindness a beacon in the darkness of his doubt. The sparkle in her eye is back, a tiny little flickering and Meliodas wants to be careful with it. She doubted him and he is starting to understand how deep her feelings of misgivings go.

She's shy and Meliodas tries to find ways to reassure her but he's never cared about another as he does her so isn't sure what to do and nothing he comes up with seems like enough.

Elizabeth and Meliodas arrive, and for a moment they stand and stare up at his dilapidated home. He instantly wishes he would have fixed the front steps or tried to clean up any bit of the mess but Elizabeth is sweet. She takes his hand, smiling to him as if simply happy to be anywhere with him, which doesn't make sense to the young man.

"When you meet my mom, try to remember she's different when she's strung out. When I was younger she used to be..." Meliodas signs but drops his hands and shakes his head. When they had all been younger, his mother used to protect him and Zeldris. "Her life has been hard from the start and she's given up."

Elizabeth accepts his words but doesn't understand them fully until he leads her inside. The room is smokey, his mother is sitting on the edge of the couch with a lit cigarette and it obviously wasn't her first with how thick the smog is. Her hair is short around her thin face. She's pretty, in a sheer negligee, showing far more skin that Elizabeth personally thinks you should show your son. The woman doesn't seem phased with the company, giving them a bland look, her golden eyes dulled. Elizabeth sees the mess, can smell the mild decay under the smoke and spots the metal spoon next to the lighter.

Elizabeth's soft eyes grow a little harder, picturing a child Meliodas running around here and understands with his personality he would have taken care of his mother.

"Mom, this is Elizabeth." He signs and speaks over the noise of the TV, "Elizabeth, this is Merlin, my mother." The introduction is only friendly on one side as Merlin picks up the remote and flips to another game show channel, the sound is loud but Elizabeth doesn't know that. Her name is on Meliodas' list but immediately Elizabeth wants to talk to him about crossing it off. '_Maybe their deeds can cancel one another out, he should forgive himself for stealing from her and treating her so poorly.' _As it seems to Elizabeth, the treatment must have gone both ways.

Elizabeth knows she must be delicate about his list.

When his mom doesn't respond he signs to Elizabeth, asking if she wants to go literally anywhere else. "We can just walk around, or visit Zeldris." As anything is better than having her here in this house. Meliodas is nervous, his home is unstable, prone to random and sporadic bouts of chaos. He does not want her near any of this.

"Okay, but I want to see your room first. It's only fair. You've seen mine." She smiles at him as her hands explain. Merlin notices then that something strange is happening.

"Woah, she's deaf." His mother puts it together, quicker than usual. "Can she getta implant or some hearin' aids?" Meliodas looks to his mom, frowning. Why did everyone assume Elizabeth needs to be fixed, nothing is wrong with her. She simply speaks in another language based in hand-motions. Merlin is genuinely curious the depths of Elizabeth's deafness but Meliodas does not like others to view Elizabeth that way. His mother's words are what he as a child had thought, and he disdains himself for it.

"This way." He thumbs over his shoulder to Elizabeth, knowing his mother wouldn't understand his signs and not wanting to speak in front of her anyways. Meliodas touches her hip beside the bottom of her backpack to guide her up the steps.

"Is she special?" Merlin inquires, having enough moral aptitude to rise from her seat because she does not want her son to be messing around with a girl who wouldn't mentally understand his actions. "If shes a handicapped, don't fuck 'er." Merlin starts and Meliodas closes his eyes to gather himself as he guides her up and away from his mother.

"She's only deaf." Meliodas explains, finding his patience for Merlin, remembering without her calling the authorities he wouldn't have Elizabeth back at all. This cools his mother, the wind leaving her sails and she returns to her indented seat on their old couch as she didn't have a reason to unleash on her son any longer.

Upstairs things are not much better, the bathroom door is open and the yellowed old-glue residue looks so much worse knowing Elizabeth is seeing it. The hall's floor waves and she stumbles slightly as he walks her to his doorway, trying to block her view of the rest of the upstairs. Zeldris' old room is full of trash, shoved and rotting. Meliodas doesn't want her here but fears refusing her again when she thought he didn't want her, which sounds insane to him.

In his room he cringes, thinking of the last time he changed his bedsheets. His bed is on the floor, his dresser is still busted with wrinkled clothing falling out of it, the holes in the walls were mostly from his rages in his younger years. With her in the middle of this, Meliodas' stomach turns, his hands find his hair and he tugs at the locks for a little pain so he could focus.

She drops her backpack, setting it under his window beside the plug in the wall. Meliodas drops his own by the door, unsure what to do but Elizabeth crouches and then sits on his wrinkled blankets over his mattress. '_She's alone in my room,' _he thinks. His gears click together that Elizabeth knows what she's doing, she's created this situation for a reason and he's a dumbass

There is no hesitation in the young man after he puts it together. He steps closer and before her, he drops to his knees, his hands caress her face and her plump lips part in a little inhale of surprise. "I want to kiss you, touch you, every single moment." He hushes, he leans and their breathing mingles before he makes contact.

She's tentative but he isn't. Meliodas has decided to put her doubts to rest by showing her how much he wants her, the depths of his feelings. He deepens the kiss with just the briefest of opportunities presented to him. Claiming her mouth as if he can sear himself into her with this alone. She groans, shaking as her hands reach for his shirt. Elizabeth bunches the fabric, pulling him closer and tentatively, she tugs it up to expose his torso. He follows her down, pressing against her until her back is against his mattress, and his weight is atop her.

She feels him, her soft hands exploring over his ribs and around his back. Elizabeth moans at the feel of his rippling back muscles, of his mouth on her skin and his weight over her. She was growing warm and she wants to be touched. The noise is wild, a pure unfiltered reaction. Meliodas grins against her mouth, kissing across her cheek and down her jaw bone. People who can hear, adjust their sounds to become more demure or subdued but Elizabeth is feral in her tones. He loves it, he wants to hear it again.

His hands trail down her neck, across her collar and over the little bones. His breathing increases to a pace almost as fast as his heart. He's panting and she presses her breasts up as if in offering and Meliodas shakes, his lips finding her ear and he nibbles. Her resulting gasp is breathy and low in her throat. '_She's a screamer,' _he guesses with a smirk. Meliodas cups her over her shirt, she's so soft he groans, his throat vibrating with the noise. He wishes he could press himself against her so she can feel it but he's losing his focus as he dips to the waistline of her shirt.

With the first contact of his knuckle to her bare stomach, he draws his face away from hers to kneel away. He wants to watch. She helps, her hand gripping the fabric and she pulls up from the bottom of her shirt, sitting slightly to remove the covering completely. Her hair tumbles chaotically around her. As soon as she's free, she reaches for him. Meliodas wishes he could have a picture of this moment, of her undressing and wanting his body against hers. He resists her reach long enough to pull his own shirt off, gripping it at the back of his neck and in one tug, he tosses it across the room.

Meliodas is in awe of her body, of her smooth creamy skin, rounded hips and full spilling bust from her purple striped bra. His hands are trembling as they find her ribs, his fingers grazing over the little ridges and he breathes her in. She smells like fresh peeled apples and he dips, leaning over her as her little hands rest on his upper arms. Elizabeth grips at the muscles there, feeling his solidness when his nose dips to trace along the valley between her mounds that laying on her back has created.

He's taken his pleasure in others flesh before but never when he loved the other person and he found himself worrying about her likes. Meliodas wants to find out what her body desires and he wants to deliver it to her, to gift her with all her fantasies. His teeth unsheathe from his lips and he nips at the top of her right breast. She arches into him. Meliodas rewards her with a kiss there, his arm wrapping around her from behind to press her bare tummy to his chest.

Elizabeth is lost in her body. Adrenaline courses through her and her chest heaves with her intakes of air. The whole room smells like Meliodas and with his hard flesh slipping against her own she is driven instinctually into slacking her own needs with little hip twists. She hushes his name, wanting his attention, to ask him if he had protection as Elizabeth's thoughts have circled around her core.

Just as she's about to ask, her hands moving away to sign, he flinches away from her. He scrambles, finding her shirt and she's just sitting up when the fabric hits her face. His lips move, but he shakes out his shirt and she didn't catch what he said. Meliodas scowls, looking at her before tugging his own shirt on. Her heart drops, throat growing tight and she shakes with her fears that he wasn't affected by her the way she was with him.

"Did I do something wrong?" Elizabeth signs, but he scowls, his hands tugging at his hair before he tries to reassure her.

"No," he signs, trying to be soft but he is shaking as he moves to her. Meliodas takes her hand in his, squeezing it in reassurance. He pulls her to her feet and grabbing both of their bags. "We have to get out of here." The young man moves his lips without the sounds. Meliodas looks out the window, he dismisses the idea, his face panicking before creeping to his door. He cracks it open. Something is happening and Elizabeth re-dresses, not having time to pull her hair out from her shirt before he takes her hand simply to sign with their faces this close.

"If I tell you to run, you run. My father is home and that's never good." His eyes are narrowed, his pupils blown and his brows furrowed but Elizabeth shook her head from side to side in denial.

"I won't leave you." She signs, her stomach twisting at the sight of his fear. She's never seen him like this before and she reaches for her backpack, pulling it across her shoulders. He does the same with his own. He takes a breath, not liking her answer but appreciating her honesty. It's better than finding out mid-fight that she hadn't listened.

"We can sneak out. Keep your eye on the front door, don't look around, whatever you see or hear, don't put herself in harm's way." Meliodas flushes, having forgotten that she can't hear his parents fight below. He holds out his palm for Elizabeth to wait. Meliodas keeps his door open to see her out of his peripheral vision in the frame of his room as he creeps down the hall. He's on his highest alert setting with Elizabeth in danger. He steps down one step when his father's billowing voice howls through the house.

"ZELDRIS!" The man's volume causes the hairs on the back of Meliodas' neck to rise. His brother moved out years ago and their father still hasn't noticed. The young man cringes as taking a beating for another is always worse. Briefly, Meliodas considers pulling the stunt his mother pulls but in reverse, sacrifice his mother's body instead of his own so he and Elizabeth can escape. Meliodas does not want to be like Merlin either and dismisses the thought. "I need some cash!" The man called and his form appears at the bottom of the steps.

His blonde hair is unkempt and long, tied at the back of his neck. The man is in his uniform, his face is scuffed and Meliodas can tell from here that he didn't go to work today, he would bet money he went to a bar or gambling. His father and Meliodas share quite a few physical similarities but as the man climbs the stairs, Elizabeth sees him and cannot find a single thing that reminds her of Meliodas.

When Meliodas doesn't want to hurt he goes back into his room, climbs from his window and jumps down to get away. Today he squares his shoulders, trying to block his father's view of Elizabeth. '_I should have brought her to Zeldris and Gelda's.' _He curses his lack of judgment, her soft doubt had broken him and with that one lapse, she has a chance of being at his father's mercy. It's not a good place to be, he knows first hand.

Daemon is a rough man, violence is all he's known and he has never questioned it. For Meliodas' father, it's simply how he communicates, he expects it from others and through repeated confirmation bias he believes it's normal. With one look he knows Meliodas is hiding something, he is a few steps from the top when he reaches for his son. Meliodas knows this dance, and rather than let him see Elizabeth he eases into the fight, lunging and tumbling down the stairs with him.

Limbs slam on the wall, they pound down the steps and the noise is thunderous as the two bodies struggle. At the bottom, Daemon is on top of Meliodas, his fist rearing back with his son's chest under his knee. Meliodas has been in this position before and he shimmies down, pushing off with his legs to wrap his calves around his dad's torso. The punch makes contact and he takes it as he fights to be free.

"Pa-lease," Elizabeth calls out, her voice warbles with emotion. He cringes at the sound, the only reaction he has and his father turns, distracted. It's enough and Meliodas gets purchase, heaving his father off enough to wiggle out from under his weight. Out of pure instinct, his father slams his elbow back into his son's solar plexus, the satisfying gasp of Meliodas losing his breath is music to the man's ear but they have company. Daemon stands and his son scrambles up, blocking the entrance of the stairs and immediately his father knows he's protecting the girl.

"Idiot." The father sneers to his son. "Only fools fall for a ladies ploys." Meliodas gives a quick look over to his mother and Merlin is standing, the couch between her and the commotion. He scowls at her and his words before he hears his girl's quick steps. Midway down the stairs, he signs to her "Stop". Her feet pause, her hands find either strap of her backpack by her own shoulders and for the second he spares her, his insides pinch from the sight of her tears. '_Fuck'._

"Why didn't you tell me we had a guest?" His father turns his angry gaze to Merlin and Meliodas twists enough to offer his hand for Elizabeth to take. She continues her path to him, her silken hand finds his. He's gentle, cradling her palm. They have a chance if his mother does this for him. He tells Merlin with the most pleading of expressions to let him get Elizabeth out of here and his mother understands what he wants. She knows she owes him for taking so many beatings in her place since he's come back but she expects it now, Merlin sees Meliodas as a shield more than a person she should be protecting.

"He has money. He gave me ova hundred a'few weeks back." Merlin points to Meliodas, fear so overwhelming in her that she chooses a path that finally breaks the mother-son bond. Meliodas scowls, audibly letting a growl rumble as his father's green eyes narrow, focusing back to him. His stash is in his locker at school, Meliodas has nothing on him and the young man wishes with all his being that he had his roll of dough to toss across the room so they would rush to it. It would give them a chance to get out.

"Let her go." Meliodas negotiates, bluffing like he had something of worth with a shoulder shrug, indicating it is in his backpack. The door is to the right and Meliodas reaches behind him to switch which hand Elizabeth holds so he can guide them closer to the exit with her at his back. He steps foot over foot as if circling a lion with his eye always on the beast that is his father and his body protecting hers. Her little panting breaths hit his neck, both her hands grip his and it hurts but in the best way.

His father in debating internally, contemplating his next move and even half-crocked his mind is sharp. Daemon has never been a dull man. If given the right environment his mind is something to behold, similar to Meliodas' skills while playing chess. The couple reaches the door and when out of options, his father reacts in only one way.

Meliodas fumbles with the doorknob from Elizabeth's hands wrapped around his but in a twist and pull, he opens it. With just enough space he guides her out, intent to shut the door and lock her out with him in, but that isn't what happens. Her feet tap on the porch and he attempts to detangle their hands but she isn't letting go. Instead, Elizabeth is trying to pull him to safety with her. "Let go." He tells her, looking away from his father for just a moment. It's all Daemon needs. Elizabeth suffers mild whiplash as she's pushed out the door, then yanked back in, her shoulder hitting the doorframe with a solid thud. Daemon has Meliodas' backpack in his grip and with his wrench, both of them come tumbling back into the house.

Elizabeth's grip fails her and she trips over a bunched up sweater discarded around some empty glass beer bottles. She cries out, scared to have lost contact with Meliodas but unhurt. His father goes to her, offering his hand and Elizabeth shrinks, trying to become smaller and he asks her "You're soft in the head, aren't cha'?" Meliodas sprung then, fighting back for the first time in his life. He has tried to escape, he has tried to infuriate, but he's never fought to win before.

The wrath he set aside for Ludociel and all the anger that his own father has poured into him is unleashed. Meliodas wails, fists connecting and bones cracking under his power. At first, he takes his father by surprise but after the third heavy slam to his father's skull, Daemon's brain slow from the blunt force trauma, he starts to hit back. His mother screams, Merlin seems to awaken and rather than join Meliodas she rushes to her husband's defense, pleading for Meliodas to stop. She never does this for her son when the roles are reversed, when it is his father pounding his face in.

"You're tuppin' a retard." Daemon provokes, the same way Meliodas does when he wants the hurts his father gives. The roles are flipped and just like Daemon, Meliodas takes the bait and uses it, hones in for his next hit. He connects with his father's ribs and he feels the bones crack, the hit is shattering and the man falls to the floor, the floorboards quaking. Merlin is at his side and she covers Daemon's body with her own, an action that Meliodas would have killed for when he was younger.

It's a moment of true clarity. These two are what he will be if he doesn't change. '_If Elizabeth never came back in my life and I had another girl, I would hate her for not being who I truly wanted'_ Meliodas thinks and wonders if that's what happened to his father. "I'm not coming back." Meliodas tells them. "You're off my list, mom. I hope it gets better for you. Truly." Elizabeth is behind him, she doesn't know he spoke or his words but at that moment, as the violence is paused, she shakily touches his arm.

He gazes at her, her pointed chin quivering and she speaks. "Pa-lease, let's go." Elizabeth warbles and Meliodas ignores his father's mocking laugh at her voice. Instead, he steps into her, his arms around her waist with her pack pressing his arm closer. Meliodas breathes her in, his nose dips into her neck and she wraps him up, even in her fear she tries to comfort him. He nods against her skin, turning to go when she yelps, gripping at him wildly as she's tugged away.

Daemon has her foot in his hold and Meliodas reacts instantly, stomping with all his might unto his father's wrist. The man howls and Elizabeth wiggles free but in the struggle, his father is left with her shoe in his grip. Meliodas removes her from the situation, his hand on her hip leading her to the door as he calls back behind him. "I understand," because he does. This is what it looks like when life breaks people, they find escapes in substances and violence, two vices that Meliodas himself has lost his will to before.

Outside, he pulls her into a run, they make it two blocks before he realizes she's limping. He stops, looking around and scowls as he realizes from here it's a forty-minute walk to her house. Meliodas loops her arm around his shoulders so she doesn't have to put any weight on her ankle as he guides them to the nearest patch of grass. It's closer to the street, the sidewalk cracked alongside the factory they were outside of. She's still crying, her breathing heavy from the turmoil and the running.

Elizabeth's life isn't like this. She isn't used to her fight or flight responses being driven to such a high, panicked extent. Meliodas knows she's in shock. He eases her into a seat and he crouches before her to take her wounded foot and peel her sock off. Her ankle is red, she only tenses a little when he touches her there so he figures it's only sprained at max, but that is still not acceptable. He knows his carelessness has harmed her. It may have been his father's hands, the last thing Daemon will ever hurt of his, but it was Meliodas' actions that led this to occur.

Meliodas pulls out his phone. His first call is to his brother, his second to his manager at Grocery mart, and all the while he keeps soothing Elizabeth. Meliodas' thumb rubs over her hand in his. Her tears stop, she pulls her hand from his and begins to furiously sign. An array of things being expressed but not followed as her speed is astounding. She wants him never to go back, Elizabeth knows now why he never had food as a child, he had been neglected severely and she wants Merlin off his list.

Elizabeth reaches around him, tugging at his backpack and although Meliodas didn't follow a thing she said he let the single strap fall from his shoulder so she could get into his pack. The handle and the right strap is broken, dangling into the grass as she unzips the top. It takes her less than a moment to find the notebook and she flips through the pages with one hand while rummaging around the bottom of his bag for a pencil.

He laughs, finding peace with her at his side. Her brows furrow, her lips pinch and her nose crinkles up in the most adorable expression of anger. Her fist rises with a pencil in her grip as if she's found the grail and on his list, she scratches and scratches over a name. Meliodas assumes it is her own, he doesn't need it to be written down for him to know but as he looks his eyes grow wide. '_Of course,'_ he thinks, knowing how she must feel. He ceases her scratching, taking the pencil and paper from her.

"You're right." He tells her, making her watch his lips as he nods his agreeance. Her hands move and he tries to watch thinking she is about to speak again but they grip his cheeks. With his backpack open between them, she stares into him, her resolve so solid in her he can see it. For a moment, a blissful heartbeat, he knows she wants to protect him and the thought is overwhelming.

An Impala passes them, slows and stops farther down the street but Meliodas stands with Elizabeth, grabbing the last good strap of his bag. He signs to her, "My brother is here." Zeldris doesn't ask questions, but he surprises Meliodas when after he climbs in the back and gives Elizabeth the front, his brother signs haltingly.

"Nice. to. meet. you. I'm. Z. E. L. D. R. I. S." His fingerspelling even involves him using his other hand to position his fingers when they couldn't stretch enough to make his R. Meliodas laughs, belly shaking joy bursting from him but Elizabeth is overcome with gratitude. In her life, not many people try to learn her language, not outside of her family. She doesn't hear Meliodas' roars of laughter but when Zeldris drops his hands with his cheeks flushing she understands and looks back to Meliodas.

She signs back, after giving Meliodas a scolding look. Zeldris is too proud to admit that he doesn't know what her slow motions mean, so changes gears and starts his drive, mumbling to Meliodas to direct him. After telling him which street and where to go Meliodas interprets what Elizabeth says, that she's very happy he learned a few signs. She does not look happy though, as she worries away at her lip. The two brothers look over at her.

"Gelda's first time seeing how we grew up, shook her so bad she didn't sleep the whole night," Zeldris tells him, forming a plan. "You moving in?" He asks for confirmation, already planning on insisting. Meliodas scowls, reaching forward just to touch Elizabeth's shirt at her elbow. She faces him, a deep concern already on her pretty features.

"I'll work at the shop for my keep. The weekends can be yours." He offers to Zeldris but he's looking at Elizabeth as he signs something different, "I'm moving in with my brother, so don't worry." The wrinkle slacks just slightly between her brow but her eyes still swim in unshed tears, the blue so reflective he can't look in them. He turns to his brother to see him looking between the two of them.

Zeldris knows what Gelda needed when she met his father and wants to give that to Elizabeth and Meliodas.

The two are still signing to one another, with Zeldris not even trying to understand as he needs to focus on his driving. Meliodas points to her street and the man marvels at the nice homes but smiles because he is grateful a kind girl sees the true worth in his little brother. He follows the directions and pulls into her driveway. When they come to a stop Meliodas leans over her, bending into the front to open the door for her. Meliodas doesn't kiss her, not with his brother watching and she looks back longingly as she gets out.

"Get out." Zeldris snaps, bending over the passenger side to pull the lever for the back of the seat to unlatch so Meliodas would climb out. Meliodas is frozen, confused. "I'll pick you up tonight if you can't find a way to stay over and if you can, tomorrow morning. I'll try to salvage what's left of your things but you know what Mom did to my stuff when I left, so don't hold your breath."

The two pairs of green eyes, nearly identical, meet. Both are shining with the same emotion and Meliodas and Zeldris both scowl away from the sudden soft connection they both feel. "Yeah, okay." The younger brother mutters, pushing his torn pack out first before squeezing out onto her driveway. Elizabeth thinks he's changing seats and signs to him.

"Any time I try to make us be together it ends so badly." Her tears finally start to fall as she understands her sin is trying to be with Meliodas when he doesn't feel the same for her. She knew he hadn't wanted to bring her to his home but thought the chance of being in a closed room alone together was much higher at his house. '_Friends is still nice,'_ she thinks but a deep part of her aches and she wonders if she can still get him to cross off the intimate request on her list. '_Just once, then we can be the kind of friends he wants.'_

Elizabeth is not learning from her mistakes, she is too scared to ask him how he feels and without that knowledge she is floundering for the edge of the emotional pool she's fallen into, unable to find anything to grip or hold onto. She's struggling to keep her head above water and not many people notice her sadness, not many can understand or have even tried.

"No, no." Meliodas signs, gripping the car door and calling to his brother distractedly "I'll text you what's happening." Before closing it. Elizabeth watches Zeldris pull away before looking to Meliodas for answers and he explains the plan is to spend the night. Her hopes shoot up that he wants to be alone with her too.

Her father is home and Elizabeth tearfully explains the whole situation. She honestly doesn't leave a thing out with what happened inside Meliodas' home. Bartra is more concerned with Meliodas' safety and where he will go next than Elizabeth's not-subtle insistence he stays the night. He isn't satisfied until Meliodas gives him his brothers phone number and Bartra takes the call outside as Elizabeth is cooking.

"Do you need help?" Meliodas asks, wanting to do something for her as she's still too wide-eyed, her teeth still nibbling at her lip skin. He worries about her but she refuses his offer. Bartra returns as the food is finishing and he declares the matter settled. "You'll sleep on the couch, your brother will be here in the morning as he's getting emancipation paperwork tonight, I'll rush it when he brings them since I'm going to the office anyways. Weekends don't mean much to lawyers."

The emancipation is news to Meliodas but he doesn't say a word as he eats with them. Bartra is wrapped up in a few lawsuits at the moment, one of them being his daughters. He's been coming home to spend time with her after school, making a point to be here for dinner this last week but tonight he has news he can't put off sharing anymore. Bartra hopes with Meliodas here she will have more support. Her father doesn't fully understand yet how far into herself Elizabeth has fallen. When his plate is clean he puts his fork off to the side and clears his throat, tapping the table for their attention.

"The case is going to trial." He signs, slowly as if trying to deliver the news more gently. "I have some example questions they may ask you when you testify, as you will be called to the stand." For a moment, as Elizabeth makes a choked shocked sob, Meliodas doesn't understand. It takes him a moment before his thoughts shift from the ruin of his own life to the ruin of hers. '_Ludociel.' _Meliodas puts it together and after struggling to eat even half of what he'd been given he stops trying to stomach the remainder.

Elizabeth's plate is worse off, not a single bite is missing as her stomach couldn't handle it. Now, there wasn't a chance of her eating. She feels like a solid mass of stone is in her gut, pressing up, threatening to burst forth if she opens her mouth. Throwing up is on the horizon for her. "Dad." She signs, shaking. "Please, I want to accept the settlement." Elizabeth has requested this course of action three times since it had been presented to her but each time her father reacts badly. This time is no different.

"No." Bartra stands from the table. "No spoiled rich brat is going to take advantage of my daughter and pay his way out of the repercussions!" In his fury he doesn't sign it, he simply howls it, picks his plate up with the fork on top and stomps it to the kitchen. "Leave your plates!" He demands, and Elizabeth stands. Meliodas understands they are being dismissed and he trails after a stoic Elizabeth as she passes.

Meliodas believes it should be Elizabeth's choice on how this is handled. Although Bartra does get a vote as this is his daughter, the final resting decision is on her. The young man takes her hand just as she reaches the bottom of the stairs and Elizabeth stops, seeming to remember he is here. They stare until she asks, quietly in her sweet wavering voice "will yew grab your bag?"

He does, wanting to give her anything she desires so her light will spark again. They go to her room and she puts on a movie. He tries to pull her out of her malaise with a joke about her romance leaning titles but she just gives a sad smile. They sit on the floor together as she gets out an old cookie tin and she pulls his bag to her side. All through the movie, she doesn't watch a single bit of it, instead, she mends his backpack from the sewing things in her tin. With each stitch, she hopes it's one step closer to her erasing the damage she feels she caused with her own insistence and manipulation.

Meliodas gets her attention twice, trying to tell her she doesn't have to fix it or that they can pick another movie if she doesn't like this one. Both times she smiles so tightly his lungs stutter, as if unable to fill with air at the sight of her looking so off. Meliodas is at a loss but waits, hoping by the time she's done or the movie is over that things will have settled inside her. He is used to his parents' violence and thinks that is what has caused Elizabeth's mood. '_She's been so sad lately, naturally, this will affect her more than it would normally, plus with her going to trial the bad things are piling up.'_

When the credits roll and his backpack is finished he asks her about going on the stand. "I'll sit with you through the whole trial." He vows, wanting to support her but she waves it away and his dark urges return seeing her so affected by Ludociel. "If you want, I can hurt him for you." He signs it and whispers it out loud in tandem.

"I don't want anyone to be hurt." She signs, her eyes filling with those unshed tears again. "I just want it to be over but... dad won't listen. No one hears me." Even Meliodas knows this is true for himself, that she goes so fast sometimes he really can't hear her. He's never prodded her for what her goals in life are outside of her bucket list and he finds himself lacking when it comes to her in a new way he hadn't considered before.

The night wears on and Elizabeth gathers blankets from the hall closet and an extra pillow from her bed. She's beautiful as she stretches to reach the sheets on the top shelf. She's gentle when they work together to make the couch into a small bed and Bartra stays up in his study with the light on down the hall to guarantee the two young people stay in their own beds.

When Bartra believes both are asleep he retires himself, sleeping almost as soon as his head hits the pillow but the two other souls in his house are awake. Elizabeth is down the hall from Bartra's bedroom and she obviously doesn't hear a thing so does not know anything has changed outside her room.

She's working on her own letter. A late response to the one Meliodas gave her at the start of their renewed friendship. The two letters are similar in the aspect of outlining her sins, of expressing her sorrow over the consequences of her actions, ones others seem to always have to bare. Elizabeth explains how sorry she is for using his own guilt against him. For her name on his list means something much different to Elizabeth. It made her a burden to him, a cross he bore on his back and all his suffering on her behalf for the pursuit of her forgiveness- something he already has, it makes her feel cruel.

She does not want to be a hardship in his life. She explains how she used her own list and his to force their date, hoping if he tried her that he might like her. Elizabeth feels as if all the bad things that have happened to her are her own fault. Whether she consciously did something to another or if she simply annoys people for being who she is, Elizabeth still feels like the guilt for the action is her own. The two letters have another commonality, as they were both written as a kind of goodbye.

Their letters differ as Elizabeth explains how she feels toward Meliodas. How much he means to her and how glad she is to have met him. That even as she grew up, she always thought of him in her toughest moments and that leaving him had been scarring as a child, but she sees now that fate was trying to spare them. If they had only the soft memories of their childlike love, things would be easier. For Elizabeth, knowing Meliodas like this and not being able to have him is torture.

It is the wee hours of the morning when she finishes. Elizabeth creeps down the stairs in her nightgown, hoping she is being quiet but not knowing when a stair creaks or if her steps are loud. Meliodas hears her coming. He is already awake, worrying about the trial and his relationship with Elizabeth. He's never been good with communicating and he needs to be better. Meliodas has never wanted to understand a person the way he wants with Elizabeth.

He sits, watching her come down and smiles with the knowledge that she will never be a good sneaker. Her long hair is wavy around her washed and rosy face, her lips appear smoother to him and he thinks it must be from her biting them so much. Elizabeth spots him and she gives a little yelp as if she forgot he's here. "Did I wake you?" She signs and Meliodas realizes there are many ways they can utilize sign language, such as silently talking while her father is sleeping upstairs.

"No. I was up." He confesses, his hands gliding through the air. "Can't sleep?" He asks and he thinks of Zeldris and his hint about Gelda. Elizabeth walks to him and at the edge of the couch, places her letter on top of his backpack positioned there.

"I wrote to you. Read it after you leave tomorrow, well, I guess it's today already as it is early-early morning." In the dark, she grows pinker but with the moonlight, Meliodas doesn't spot it. Yesterday is already over. Elizabeth grows somber knowing what today signifies and she asks Meliodas "May I lay with you?" He shifts to see the limited space on the couch and offers her his hand.

With a little maneuvering, he fits her on her side between him and the cushions of the couch. He tugs his blankets up and covers her body beside him. She smells like kindness and as she settles back on half of the pillow she lent him she smiles, a real one, one he hasn't seen in days and the sight of it makes his throat catch. The back of his eyes pinch and he grins back at her, knowing he was gone for this girl and not caring in the least.

"Be with me." She signs, pushing the blankets down and she fists her nightgown in her grip over her hips to pull the fabric up. Meliodas' mouth pops wide and he covers her fists with his palms, halting her exposing herself. There are a few reasons why he is refusing her, again, but the main one is that he thinks from their limited experience that she is going to be deliciously and sincerely loud. He pulls away to sign, but she releases her dress, resigned to the searing rejection.

"I don't want to wake your father up," he starts but Elizabeth zones out as he continues "I just want to hold you, to sleep beside you." She doesn't respond and he settles in at her side, faces a breath apart as he arranges the blanket. He wraps his arm around her waist, finding it easy to press himself against her. She responds, naturally so as he smells like man and toothpaste. Elizabeth closes her eyes, to experience him fully, to feel him and just as his firm lips press innocently and sweetly to hers the tears she's been holding fall.

With her eyes closed, she can't read his lips as he tells her "Please don't cry, I'll always be here for you." That night, he has the most uncomfortable sleep on the edge of the couch, but it is the best night of his life with her steady breathing and soothing warmth.


	7. Pride

Chapter 7: Pride

Meliodas wakes to a crash in the kitchen. He tenses, expecting to be in his own house and assesses the situation as best he can as his sleepy brain reconnects. Elizabeth is soft and sleeping soundly in his arms. "I hope I didn't wake you!" Her father calls out, loud, as he crashes metal against metal. Meliodas chuckles, liking Bartra all the more. If Meliodas caught his future daughter wrapped around someone like him, he would strive to be this mischievous about it but probably fall short of the mark.

"Need help?" He yells back, over Elizabeth's sleeping face. She doesn't stir in the least from the noise. Bartra chuckles from the other room.

"I called your brother. He's heading over in a few. I need to be at the office this morning." His voice is full of mirth and Meliodas smiles at his lady's peaceful expression, understanding her father's worry. She looks so serene and he steals the softest kiss from her, his chest closing in on itself as he feels his heart beat fast enough to try and escape its confines. As gentle as he can manage he pulls away.

Her sleepy eyes open at his movement, they roam unseeingly around the room until they meet his green eyes and her satisfied smile crushes his insides to warm goo. "Oh." Escapes his lips as he wants to see that look every day, all the time, and he wonders if that's how she'll look after an orgasm. Meliodas grows hard and he tucks away from her, twisting to a seat and leaving the blankets behind for her.

"Good morning." He signs, having a hard time looking at anything outside of her. Meliodas watches as her bright eyes dim, she stretches prettily as she sits and then scoots away, her arms wrapping around her knees. Elizabeth's gaze falls on her letter to him while he is distracted by her nightgown riding up her creamy legs. "Are you okay?" He asks and she tries to smile.

Her dad pops in, waving for their attention and Elizabeth rises, offering to help. Meliodas can't stand yet, not with the situation between his legs. He listens, to her soft "good morning" in the dining room and to Bartra's laugh before he makes his way to their spare bathroom. After, he is in control of himself and when he enters the kitchen he is put on toast duty.

Midway through breakfast the doorbell rings and in one glance Meliodas recognizes his brother's silhouette through the opaque glass of the door. Bartra rises first and Meliodas stands but with one glance at Elizabeth he stays. She isn't eating and he thinks back, remembering her doing the same with dinner. Bartra and Zeldris share a handshake and the two couldn't look more different.

Bartra is in his suit minus his coat and leather shoes. His hair is combed back and his beard is well-kept, regal looking. He's sporting a cool smile, Bartra's eyes kind as he notes all the similarities between the brothers.

Zeldris is in torn and grease-stained jeans, he fumbles taking off his cloth sneakers in the entrance way as their house is too clean for him to touch anything. His hair is pushed to one side, held in place with his natural oils as he hadn't showered the night before. He cringes at his dirty wifebeater, looking over at his brother sheepishly as if sorry he is embarrassing him but Meliodas is focusing on Elizabeth again.

Bartra has spent a few hours with the two over the course of the few meals they have shared and he's noticed the sheer adoration Meliodas has for his daughter. Zeldris and Bartra have the same sappy grin on their face when Meliodas taps Elizabeth's hand. She is zoned out, jolts into awareness with his touch and flushes hot that all the faces are turned to her. Meliodas is the only one whose expression is deep in concern and she tries to brush his worries off.

"I'll clean up." She offers and Bartra is grateful.

"Now that Zeldris is here, I'll be heading out. I'll see you around dinner, Elizabeth. Text me if you leave." Her father signs, slapping Zeldris on the shoulder not knowing Meliodas' older brother doesn't know much of the language. Elizabeth told her father Zeldris signed to her and had made a wrong conclusion from it. Elizabeth takes the plates, put them beside the sink and as her dad passes she stops him.

She gives him a big hug. Bartra chuckles, returning the affection with gusto and kissing the top of her head. "I love yew." Elizabeth tells him, her voice saying those words affect Meliodas and he looks to his brother. Zeldris hadn't understood the muffled warbled words and with his eyebrows so high Meliodas can tell. Bartra goes, cheerily calling out "You and your brother are fine people, Meliodas! Don't let me down." The older man gives him a wink over his shoulder as he goes out the side door of the kitchen.

Meliodas helps her load the mostly empty dishwasher and rinse their cups and plates before he starts gathering his stuff. He tucks her letter into his front hoodie pocket, the thought of reading it burning him with anticipation. Meliodas has never received a love letter and he hopes it is one. He himself found it so much easier to express himself over paper than in person.

"If you don't have anything to do today, you are welcome to come with us. We'll just be hanging around the shop." Meliodas offers speaking and signing, Zeldris nods hopefully meeting Elizabeth's eyes. He too can tell something is off and when she gives a resigned sad smile, Zeldris tells his brother he's going to wait out in the car for him. He picks up his shoes and situates himself on the porch before going to his Impala on the street and starting it up.

"I don't want to get in your way." Elizabeth signs. "You'll be working." He isn't sure how to say goodbye and to prolong their time he thanks her for the food, for fixing his backpack and with a flush, he goes to the couch to fold his blankets. She helps, grabbing the long ends and their fingers touch as he takes them from her when they maneuver the fabric. When its folded he fumbles for any reason to stay in the room with her as she hasn't smiled yet. He wants her eyes to sparkle again.

"I like sleeping with you." He flushes as he signs, awkward as that's as close as he can get to express his feelings about having her close through the night. Meliodas knows it is too soon to show his cards, fears that if she knew how obsessive he has been about her for years that she'll run, any sane person would. He has so much to say but doesn't.

While, everything Elizabeth had to say is in her letter to him and she walks to the door, eyes filling as she tells him. "Thank yew for being my friend, Meliodas." He smiles, loving when his name leaves her lips but she opens the door for him and he knows their time is up. When he steps out she shuts the door behind her and he turns to watch her through the frosted glass as she walks away.

'_I should have kissed her goodbye.' _He wonders if she had wanted to. A cold fear runs down his spine and he pulls her letter from his pocket to peel open the side as he makes his way to the Impala. '_What if it's a breakup letter.' _A rush of anxieties plague him, that he will have to live without her after he's had a taste of what life could be like.

Meliodas gets in and as soon as the door is shut he's speed-reading her letter. Zeldris pulls away, asking him if he wants a coffee as he already planned on stopping for Gelda. "She loves those Frozen Mocha drinks. She gets all glowy when she has one." Meliodas isn't listening though as his hands start shaking while reading Elizabeth's words. He skips, picking up phrases and in a rush Meliodas finally understands her.

The phrases that shout out to him, make his heart skip a beat. 'Free you from me', 'Cross me off your list' and 'please don't be sad about this.' He's a few blocks away and without a second of hesitation the letter is tossed from his fist and he opens the Impala's door. They were moving, not excessively fast as they were in residential but Zeldris calls out, shocked. "What the fuck?!"

Meliodas jumps from the car, stumbling with the sudden foot over foot running he had to do just to stay upright. He ignores his brother, shedding his coat to move faster. Meliodas runs with everything he has because everything he has is at stake. '_I knew something wasn't right and I left her.'_ He curses, a panicked throaty groan escapes him as he realizes how much he's missed and how hard he's failed her. '_She doesn't know how I feel, I told her only when I knew she wouldn't understand!'_

He jumps her wall, bounds up the stairs and yanks the door open, grateful that she hadn't locked it. "ELIZABETH!" he shouts her name but the silence in the house is eerie. He takes the stairs three at a time, pulling himself with the railing and goes to her room as his first stop. Meliodas had left his phone in his bag on the floor of Zeldris' car but he spots Elizabeth's on the end of her bed. He dials 911, preemptively as he isn't taking a single chance.

That's when he hears the water turn on, a rushing noise from the bathroom up here. The dispatcher answers with a 'what is your emergency' just as he slams the door to her room in his blind panic to reach her. He tries the handle and shakes the bathroom door, the wooden frame jumps from the force. "LET ME IN!" He howls, using his shoulder as he steps back and rams the wood. The door splinters around the lock and Elizabeth sobs, loud and shocked but the barrier kept them apart until he slams into it a second time.

The wood splinters, breaking fully on the one side from the frame as he stumbles in a few steps. The phone goes flying from his grip, sliding across the floor but he pays it no mind as he takes her in. She's bleeding, her wrist sliced long ways, from her wrist to her mid forearm and his face crumples at the sight. Elizabeth is shaking, the bloody razor on the counter as she had a towel in her other arm, cleaning her own blood off the floor but trailing more behind her.

'_Its soaked. I have to stop the bleeding.'_ He reaches for her but she flinches away, falling back and with solid smacks of her elbow on the side of the tub and her head on the wall, she sags to a sit. Meliodas kneels before her, roughly taking the wet towel from her with an angry snarl, forcing her gushing wrist into his grip to wrap it.

"Don't FUCKING leave me!" He demands, his swirling storm of wrath ignites with the repeated sparks of raw fear. "I won't let you!" Meliodas tightens the towel around her arm and ties the ends as best he can as he spots little orange see-through bottles by her hip. He shakily reaches for one but changes his mind as they were already ingested and Meliodas knows what he needs to do.

"Stahp!" She muffles, pushing him away with weak trembling muscles. Whatever she took was already taking effect or the blood loss was getting to her. "Don't touch meh."

"You're gonna listen to me!" Meliodas is harsh, pulling her toward the toilet and he opens the lid, forcing her face over it as he struggles to put his fingers in her mouth. She screams, wild and angry. He uses it to his advantage and ignores her bites as she scratches at his arm with her good hand, but his fingers touch the back of her throat. Vomit erupts and although his arm doesn't get out of the way in time, he uses his other to pat her back. "You made me do this." His voice is rough with emotion, heavy in wrath. He knows she can't hear but he feels wrong being so firm with her body, of holding her in place as he was and he wants to explain.

She's shaking as she wipes at her mouth, eyes wide and terrified as she pleads. "Let meh go." Elizabeth's bleeds through the towel, a drop of red hits the toilet seat as her limb falls limp at her side. She wobbles, tears leaking and Meliodas catches her before she hits her head. With a scuffle, his shoes squeak in her blood over the tile as he lays her out over his legs.

His head shakes from side to side, denying the situation and her request. "I can't! I won't." He's almost screaming, hoping if he reaches a high enough decibel she might hear something. Meliodas' stomach burns, his grip too tight and he tries to make his touch comforting, fearing these were her last moments and he wants to make them softer for her. His teeth clench, his own eyes leaking and her uncut hand comes up, touching his cheek and smearing the tear.

"Pa-lease." She hushes, her lips are turning blue and it trembles. Her face is pale, her breathing rapid and the bathtub fills more than the safety drain can take. A cascade of water falls from the edge coating the floor and the blood around them starts to thin, a swirling pink. "Ayelubeayew." She warbles and he doesn't understand it. Her dying words and he screams as her blue eyes, already dim, grow dull before her lids shut sag.

"Open your eyes!" He howls. "SOMEONE HELP HER! She can't hear me if her eyes are shut!" Meliodas shakes her, sloshing in the water as he heaves her up, grunting to princess hold her limp body. "I won't let you go!" He bellows, angry and vicious, overcome with too many coursing emotions. Down the steps, his back hits the wall for support and a slew of picture frames crash around him. "You can't leave me." Meliodas' voice cracks, his body breaking down with shakes as hers grew colder with the dripping blood from her wrist leaving a path down the steps.

He doesn't have a plan outside of get her away from the scene. Her breathing is shallow, disjointed and Meliodas' breaths cease until the little whistle-intake is heard once more. "I won't live without you." He declares, his plans shifting back to what they were before she came back into his life. "I love you." Meliodas chokes, tears dripping on her peaceful face.

Zeldris steps over the threshold, takes in the scene, the blood and his wreck of a brother with one glance. His phone is out, dialing 911 just as the first siren of an ambulance could be heard in the distance. "She can't die!" Meliodas whimpers, the anger in him dying with her and all that is left is emptiness. The darkness is expansive, overpowering and when his brother reaches for her he panics. "DON'T TOUCH HER!"

He feels he has to keep her safe and Meliodas doesn't even realize it's Zeldris in his state of hyperarousal. He thinks outsiders wouldn't understand, that only he can see her, truly see her and it took him too long. Meliodas is panting, his lungs seeming to catch all the air she's missing as he moves her down the porch stairs. Officers arrive, an ambulance on its tail in an onslaught of alarms and urgency.

A man in an EMT uniform calls out with his partner, a flashlight clicked on as he reaches for the limp Elizabeth in Meliodas' arms. Immediately he reacts badly, slamming his forehead into the mans in a vicious head butt that knocks him backwards, away from her. Zeldris howls, rushing forward but the officers arrive before his brother and in a struggle, Elizabeth's body is maneuvered from him. It takes two officers and two EMTs but the two teenagers are separated.

Meliodas fights, flying elbows and punches, slipping from holds and yelling. "Don't touch her!" He doesn't stop until Zeldris tackles him down between the officers. Zeldris is of the notion that the officers would press charges while he personally, would not; that Meliodas needs an outlet for his emotions. Zeldris knows too well the lure or violence. Elizabeth is on a gurney, checked over and put on an IV. The ambulance is leaving in a matter of moments.

The brothers trade punches, slamming and pounding into the others flesh. Zeldris' brow is gushing blood. He is more in control than Meliodas, avoiding hitting his face while his younger brother is too lost to give the same courtesy. "She's gone." Meliodas croaks, rolling on top of Zeldris with his next punch but his brother uses the same force to continue the tumble until the two hit the wall. The flowers under their weight are pressed flat.

"Get yourself together," Zeldris grunts at he takes a few hits, and he sees his father shine through in his brother. "She needs you!" Zeldris howls, slamming the message home by cracking his fist across his brothers jaw. Officers descend, wrestling Meliodas' rearing fist back and he breaks down.

Meliodas doesn't sob, he doesn't scream or cry, the man just sags in his cuffs and lets the rough officers guide him. Zeldris follows, wiping at his face with a scowl as miranda rights are stated. "Its a panic attack, trust me, he's my brother... He's not good at expressing himself, this is what it looks like. That girl, she's his girlfriend-" But his brothers voice is cut off when Meliodas is shoved in the back of the cruiser, the plastic seat skids across his face as he doesn't even try to prevent the blow.

Zeldris smacks at the glass and Meliodas blandly looks over as his brothers voice yells, muffled from outside the car, "I'll bail you out! I'm calling Bartra." When he steps back an officer climbs in the front seat, rubbing his sore jaw and glaring into his rearview window but Meliodas hasn't bothered to sit up. '_She's gone.'_ Kept circling in his mind. They drove for a short while, two officers manhandled him to get him out and they take pictures.

They spend extra time on the scratches and bite marks on his hand and arm. He's given new clothes to wear and when he changes they confiscate his old ones. They take his finger prints and he only speaks once when he's brought to a detective. "Is Elizabeth alive?" He wonders, fearing and needing the answer as he can't get her dull eyes out of his mind.

Meliodas is brought to an interrogation room, cuffed to the metal table which is bolted to the floor. Two different detectives come in. He lays his head on the table, looking over the path her nails dug into his flesh and wonders '_will this be the last thing she gives me?' _They think he hurt her, at first when the detectives ask he simply tells them "no", denying that he cut her or attacked her but eventually Meliodas reconsiders.

He starts to feel if he wasn't such a self absorbed asshole he may have caught on sooner, that they were the same from the very beginning of their relationship in elementary school so he should have known her list meant the same as his. '_A bucket list... why didn't I figure it out?'_ The detectives bring out two faxes as evidence after a few hours and give Meliodas a blank notebook and a pen.

"The officers you've assaulted, while resisting your arrest, spoke to the girls neighbors. A Mrs. Abernaty states she caught you spying, watching her dress through her window." Meliodas doesn't deny that, he can't, but sits up to look at the police emblem stamped on the front of the notebook. His cuffed hand stretches the chain, it grinds against the bar as he takes the pen in hand. "That's for your confession." The detective explains, pushing the written statement Mrs. Abernaty recounted before him over his right hand. The header stated 'known stalker of victim'.

The word victim circles in his mind.

'_A confession of my sins...' _Meliodas thinks, a haze is affecting him as if he is recovering from the worst beating he's ever taken but he knows the fight with Zeldris was mild in comparison to the usual. Elizabeth's pale blue lips flash in his thoughts and he groans, pained. The detective thinks he's getting somewhere and eagerly places the second paper beside the other to show him a sheet from his record in juvie. A paper submitted by his councillor, one of the best men Meliodas has had in his life.

The detective points his finger at the page as if this is the linchpin in his case. "Do you know what this says?! You've been obsessed with Elizabeth Liones for years! Mr. Escanor, a licensed psychologist says... and I quote," the detective picks up the paper to read it verbatim. "Due to his Attachment disorder he has developed a secondary disorder of obsessive love. Because of his repeated expressed fantasies and how his entire life centers around one girl he knew as a child, Elizabeth Liones, it is my recommendation that Meliodas have no contact with her in any capacity. A rejection is likely to lead to a repeat of Meliodas putting the object of his attentions in the hospital or worse."

Meliodas had not known Escanor had diagnosed him, being underage the information had gone to his uninvolved parents. He's never heard this recommendation but Escanor had given him warning about 'triggers' and that Elizabeth is his primary one. Escanor hadn't told him this would happen if he entered her life and Meliodas grips at his hair, tugging and fisting as he tries to think it through. '_It is my fault.'_

The detective continues his theory on what he thinks really happened. "Why would she cut her primary wrist first?" but she's a signer, both of her hands have been trained to be equally dominant. "You shoved those pills down her throat, the bite on your hand and the scratches where she fought back, not to mention the 911 tape. You were vicious. She wanted to leave you and you couldn't let her go."

Meliodas is better at handling his overwhelming emotions but this is beyond the scope of what he can handle. Slowly, he sits back, he head shaking from side to side 'no' in denial of his own memories, of the detectives assessment and of Elizabeth ever reaching such a dark place when to him, she is all the good there ever will be in the world.

The mustached man in his collared shirt stands, hitting his knuckles on the table, reminding him of all the times Ban did that to Elizabeth's desk so she knew he was there. "I want you to hear the rest of the evidence we have." The man walks over to the mirrored glass and gave a nod, and as the audio had been cued up a ringing sounds over the tinny speakers, as if a call is going through.

"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" A woman's voice sounds in the room as the detective grins while shutting the door, catching Meliodas' wide-eyed understanding. He's left alone in the room as the lady repeats her words just as he hears his own voice, "LET ME IN!" Meliodas shivers, it feels like ice is sliding down his spine and settles in his gut because he knows how it sounds. As if Elizabeth made the call... and as he slams into the door once, twice and she sobs in her surprised high-pitched exclamation he gets what the officers concluded. The door splinters, the sound cracking in his chest cavity, echoing. There is a tumbling as the phone flew from his grip, but it sounds as if they were struggling over the phone.

For a brief moment, there is only the sound of the running water as the dispatcher calls out "Miss, are you okay?" but she's tapping on a keyboard, her fingers working quick as she fears she understands the situation and getting it wrong. Meliodas screams, his hands grabbing at his ears and he wishes he were deaf, just like her so he didn't have to relive this because his mind filled in the visuals. Her contrite face as she cleaned up her own blood. '_Did she not want to inconvenience anyone with her suicide?'_

The volume is turned up and he can hear the audio through his hands. It sounds like an animal snarling, he realizes how cruel he was in her final moments as his vicious voice demands "Don't FUCKING leave me!" He shakes, the chain connected to the table jangles but he lets go of his ears to hear the loud recording of "I won't let you!"

Meliodas lets his mind replay him wrapping her arm in the towel. He wants to hear the next part, her voice is coming up and it doesn't disappoint, even with the tinny overlay. "Stahp!" Meliodas basks in the sound, his eyes pinching out tears as he squeezes them tight. "Don't touch meh." His hands are shaking as he grabs the pen, flipping open the notebook ahead of him as her pale face looms in his memory. .

He touches the pen tip to paper as his voice sandpapers across his eardrums. "You're gonna listen to me!" Meliodas just wants her voice, he doesn't want to endure his own cruelty to her, how he misses his chance to tell her while she was still conscious. There is a struggle, her little sobbing grunts before she screams, wildly. Meliodas looks at his hand as he knows he is stuffing it down her throat and he breaks down, throatily gasping as he listens to her vomit.

"Stop!" Meliodas howls, tainted with tears. No one abides.

"You made me do this." The tape continues, his voice is rough and the man scowls at the paper before him, wanting to release the building storm inside of him. '_She could be dead right now, she might not exist anymore and without her soul I can't... I won't go on.' _His muscles tense, his head arching back as if to give his body more room to accept the feelings. He's tight, as if about to take a crushing blow, and it comes as he expects, her soft, pleading voice asking so shakily he can see her terrified gaze with the words. "Let meh go." There is a scuffle, squeaking shoes on the tile and he can almost feel her weight in his arms.

His recorded self feels how he does now, his scream repeated in his mind. "I can't! I won't!" Meliodas's head falls forward, hovering over the paper, his golden locks tickling over the page. Her voice is the antithesis of his, hushing and quiet to his raging panicked screaming. "Pa-lease." He remembers her blue lips trembling, her breathing turning rapid. There is dripping water and he knows this is when the tub overflowed.

Meliodas has reached the max his body can take and he howls, standing and straining against the chains. "STOP THE TAPES!" He howls, his rage turning and he can't throw the chair or the table as it's bolted down so he simply slams his own head into it with a resounding crack, his blood spurting in an arch. It only mildly dulls the pain.

"Ayelubeayew" Her voice warbles and he doesn't understand again, his brain fuzzy and he curses, a string of raw, rough words as he had his second chance to understand her but wasted it. '_Just like I wasted every moment with her.'_ He growls, his face pressed to the metal as he groans, knowing he missed her dying words a second time.

"Open your eyes!" The tape cracks, his words sounding underwater due to the tub overflowing. "SOMEONE HELP HER! She can't hear me if her eyes are shut!" He hears the sloshing of water, of his pained grunts on the tape and he sighs, low and relieved as this is the end of the recording. It clicks off and he sags into his seat, putting the pen still in his fingers to the page again.

He starts a letter, writing her name on the top as the speaker clicks once more and to his utter horror, the tape starts over again. "No!" He screams, so tense his muscles ache. Meliodas wipes at his bleeding forehead with his unscratched arm and he calls out again "Stop this! It's torture! I CAN'T SEE HER LIKE THIS AGAIN." Because he recalls her scratching breathing, her parted blue lips and her pale face accenting her dull eyes. "I CAN'T!"

Meliodas screams the entire audio until the end, he has a third chance to understand her last words. "Ayelubeayew" and Meliodas howls as the meaning alludes him. He puts pen to paper to finish his letter, a response to hers, the one he never finished as he understood it was a goodbye letter quickly. He starts a stream of consciousness, as the overwhelming emotions course through him he lets them flow out, giving it all a path to go.

He confesses, the notebook if full of confessions. How he failed her in her final moments, that he knew she wasn't happy when he left that morning and how he should have known. The tape repeats and his neck stretches when her voice sounds, his jaw cracking from the pressure of his teeth grinding. Meliodas looks at his scratched up hand as that part of the tape plays. He listens, straining and stilling to hear "Ayelubeayew" and when he doesn't understand, again, the man twists in his chair. He wants pain, he has so few options but he wraps his ankle around the chair leg and with his other he tries to break his fibula bone, coming up short of succeeding but feeling what he needs with the ache that spreads up his leg.

Meliodas groans, a mixed reaction of both pleasure and pain.

He writes as he listens. Poems flowing from his fingers as he fills page after page. Three pages are dedicated to the feel of her skin. Another couple about the light that she shines when she enters any room and how her smile makes him feel. His words turning harsh with how 'fucking special' she is and how the rest of the flea-bagged rats in the world have brought her down. He spends seven pages on how being a self-absorbed asshole made him unworthy to live, that he had no plans of continuing, 'without your heartbeat pumping life into the world there is no reason for my own to keep torturing me with survival.'

"Ayelubeayew" her voice echoes, his pen ceases for the first time in two hours, his hand cramping but the gears twirling in his mind click together with finality. Meliodas stands, he howls, arms raised as far as they can go and the pen in his fist snaps in two, blue ink exploding in his palm.

"YOU CAN'T!" He bellows in rage, his arms coming down to fling the notebook away. "I'M NOT GOOD!" It flaps its pages, crashing to the white cinderblock wall and out of reach, the broken pen following the notebook. Meliodas devolves into sobs, hunching over the table and he throws punches, roughing up his knuckles in a pointless endeavor to get the tapes to stop because now that he understood what she was saying, he can't hear it again.

But he has to. When the part comes up the next time, he stills sitting on the edge of his metal chair with the upper half of his body limp over the table top. She's saying "I love you." Parts of him die, his heart feels as if its shriveling inside of him and he prays internally for her life. '_Spare hers, take mine if you need a soul.'_

There is no resistance in the man as the tape repeats and slowly, as the minutes pass, he longs for her last words. He doesn't need to hurt himself as this hurts so nicely he feels as if he is finally being absolved of his sins. That perhaps, when he follows her to the grave that his soul will have been cleaned enough to join hers in heaven, and if she isn't there he'll follow her wherever she may have gone.

"Ayelubeayew." her voice warbles and he understands. Across the table his bloody fingers reach as if to find her when there is a new sound over the speaker. A scuffle and a "Hey!" that isn't a part of the audio track. It ends prematurely but Meliodas doesn't rise. He hears the door open, knows a person has sat down in front of him but he simply lets his silent tears pool under the side of his face on the table, unmoving.

"Meliodas." The voice is thick, familiar and of a man he saw just this morning in an extremely different situation, a time Meliodas has wished to return to, to restart his day, thousands of times. He rises, green eyes wide and reflecting Elizabeth's father, his own eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot.

The two stare until shakily Meliodas asks, "Is she...?" But he can't finish, his throat closing in on itself and he blanks, unable to continue the thought, he can't face it.

"You got to her in time." Bartra chokes, swallowing thickly. "I'm getting you out of here." He pulls out papers, a pen and in a few pen swipes Bartra is his legal advisor, his lawyer. The older man stands, looks over the ruined bleeding man before him and sucks in a hissing breath before awkwardly, his hand comes out and pats his unruly blonde locks. "Give me fifteen minutes. Zeldris and Gelda are out there doing everything they can."

When Bartra leaves, paperwork in hand, the silence doesn't bother him because Elizabeth is alive. Meliodas is having a hard time processing the thought of him doing something right, of reaching her in time. After reliving the nine-one-one call over and over, the interruption of his penance seems wrong and in spite of there being no danger his body's hyperarousal doesn't calm.

After a moment, he fears he hallucinated Bartra, that perhaps he's been stuck in silence. Meliodas would prefer her dying words over having nothing of her at all and asks quietly "can I hear her, one more time?" but either no one is behind the mirror or no one thought he was worth an answer. He holds his breath but releases it after a moment when the click doesn't start.

Meliodas waits. It takes less than the fifteen minutes Bartra requested for an officer to come in and uncuff him. He's grumbling about 'resisting arrest charges' but once the chains are off, Meliodas rubs at his wrists and follows the man out. He catches sight of himself in the mirror and can't manage a reaction to the dried blood on his face and caked in his hair. What he sees is what he expected, as that's about how he feels.

He's limping through the station, his own inflicted injuries throbbing but when he sees Gelda on the other side of the glass divider keeping the public out he winces at her reaction. "Did you do this to him!" She yells, her greasy finger rising and she points around at the officers seemingly not knowing where to land. "I want the interrogation tapes! Do you HEAR ME!?" Her ponytail bobs with her aggression and Zeldris pulls at her fist, telling Gelda something that makes her flash with pallor, eyes glinting to Meliodas in understanding.

Meliodas doesn't try to put on a face of bravado for them as he's lead around to the side metal door and out of sight. "You're released, we'll be in contact with your lawyer." The door opens and he walks into the lobby. To the left is his brother and sister-in-law. Gelda tries to rush him but Zeldris grabs her wrist, holding her back and she cries, she's still pretty but she snots loudly with her emotions.

When the two reach his side, Zeldris looks him over with worried green eyes. He isn't sure how to comfort his brother but he does remember that Meliodas never reacts well to touch. Zeldris has a black eye, his eyebrow cut and a nice bruise on his jaw. With one glance Meliodas frowns, seeing the damage he did.

"I'm sorry." He tells Zeldris, green to green. Neither of them are good at expressing themselves, yet they both felt so much love for the other in this moment that they didn't need to. The two smirk, a connection formed long ago grows solid, unbreakable, and Zeldris releases Gelda to smack Meliodas' shoulder.

"Fuck that." Zeldris jokes, but Gelda elbows her husband in the side at just the right spot to hit where its sore and he winces. Meliodas almost smiles until Gelda falls upon him, her arms around his shoulders and she crumples, crying, her speech so rushed and choked he doesn't understand a thing. But her message is clear enough with the emotions thick in her voice. Gelda pulls away, her puffy eyes and splotchy face stunning as her expression is one of love, for him. Meliodas can't breath and it gets worse as Bartra strolls out like he owns the place, nodding over to them.

"You have the address. Room five-thirteen." The old lawyer speaks to Zeldris but continues on, head held high but his shoulders give him away as a defeated man. He has too much on his plate and with Elizabeth, Barta can't find one single fuck to give about any of his other obligations. His daughter comes first.

Meliodas slinks from Gelda and Zeldris eases the situation but guiding them both toward the parking lot. "I don't have a change of clothes for you but we have napkins and a bottle of water you can use to clean yourself up." Meliodas winces when he touches his forehead cut, not really thinking about it with seeing Elizabeth again just around the corner. He feels exhausted with the whip lash his feelings are giving him. He feared he would never see her again, that she was gone from this world and now he's on his way chanting 'room five-thirteen' in his head.

.X X X.

Her sisters tried to talk to him. Bartra said something, low and calming but Meliodas is focused on not walking too quickly but moving as fast as he dared through the halls of the hospital. He passes the waiting room where her family is. He doesn't want to be accosted about his own head wound and keeps his palm over the damage to be as inconspicuous as possible. Yet, when he is standing outside of her room, he stops. A piece of him doesn't believe she's in there, a dark twisting writhing of snakes in his stomach keep him in place as he fears finding her hospital bed empty.

Meliodas stands there so long that Bartra walks up beside him. The two stand, side by side facing her partially open wide-door. Inside you can see the tan curtain and the open bathroom to the left. "She asked for you." Bartra speaks, "her first word when she came back." Her father meant it as comforting but Meliodas winces, hoping she hadn't been afraid or confused as to why he was no longer by her side. It's been hours and Meliodas yearns for her.

There is no hesitation as he dips around the barrier between them and walks around the curtain pulled across. She looks so small, she's strung up with tubes and she's so pale he has a hard time spotting where her skin ends and her hairline begins. Elizabeth is sleeping, but his chest grips at the vision of her being motionless with her eyes closed. He goes to her side and moves his face to be perpendicular to her torso to watch her chest, under the white knit hospital blanket, rise and fall.

"Elizabeth." He hushes, and as if she can hear, her eyes flutter open. Instantly the blue orbs crinkle, filling with tears and she reaches with her I.V. arm to touch him. Meliodas sinks into the feel of her hand on his face, her little weak fingers weaving into his hair and she pulls his head forward. He doesn't fight it, bending farther into her until their foreheads touch. She jolts with her sobs and his scabbed hands come up to cup her face, tears filling his own eyes.

"Aye Louve Yew." She confesses, her sobbing making her voice thicker but Meliodas chuckles, humorlessly as he's heard her say it over and over again before this. She wiggles, moving until her back hits the side railing of her bed and her little tugs let him know what she wants. Meliodas has no will to resist her, pulling away to kick off his shoes and maneuver to join her on the bed. He makes the sign for 'I love you' and as he lays down beside her, he presses it to her chest, over her heart and hospital gown.

Her sobs increase in intensity from his confession and he pulls back her blankets to lay under them with her. "I'm sowwy." She speaks, and he's already shaking his head no from side to side as he is careful with the tubes around her. "I thought I held yew back." His head just keeps denying it, shaking no as his tears fall and he signs back, his motions shorted with the little distance between them on the bed.

"I only want to be where you are." He stares into her, her eyes flitting from his hands to his face as if to make sure she understood correctly. "The rest of my life is yours to do with as you please." Meliodas finishes and her expression crumples, her bandaged arm gripping at his blood stained, jail-provided white shirt. He pulls her into an embrace and he holds her as she cries, gentler than he's ever been, afraid to break her when she's just been put back together.

The two don't separate until a cafeteria worker comes in with a tray. She's so focused on her task of setting up the food on the wheeled table the worker doesn't notice there are two people in the bed. Simply pushes the table to be within reach of the bed and goes. Elizabeth sniffs, rubbing her leaking face on his shirt before releasing him. With hesitation, the two maneuver into a seat and Meliodas gives her the bed. "Don't go!" She speaks, and he nods, pulling the high back chair closer so he can watch her eat.

With the first bite of food to her lips, he smiles. Meliodas wants to tell her all about his own suicidal plans, about how far he had fallen before she blazed back into his world but he doesn't want to burden her. Instead, he comes up with another plan, he remembers how he had to make plans when he shifted to a 'living' mentality. He touches the back of her bandaged hand as she is using the I.V. one to eat to attract her eyes as he signs.

"Elizabeth." Meliodas starts, "let's plan something fun together. Is there anything you want to do?" His only intention is to have a date or event to look forward to. Meliodas makes a note to himself to always have something dangling in front of her, a juicy apple for her to reach out and live for. Her lips twist, her eyes softening in kindness and her expression reminds him of Gelda's but seeing Elizabeth's love quickens his heart in a different way.

He doesn't know the sign she uses and he asks her to repeat it before he shrugs. She spells out "Europe" and his eyes alight as he looks to hers with a laugh.

"Backpack across Europe? Hostiles and train rides?" Meliodas asks, his hands moving fast in his eagerness and she nods.

"Dad agreed to the settlement. We can use some of that money." She offers but Meliodas has his own money, cash he's been saving for a few years now. "Take a year off before college." Elizabeth shrugs, not wanting to push him.

"We can apply to colleges together, for the rest of this year. If I buckle down I can finish well." Meliodas adds, "I'm used to living out of a backpack." He means it earnestly but Elizabeth laughs, a musical chime that chips at the ice in his stomach, a sound that causes him to think she's okay. They are making tentative plans and he jokes more than usual to coax her pretty smiles from her. She's finished her meal when there is a knock on her door.

A moment later her sisters come in. Veronica and Margaret are forced, stilted as they sign but after a moment their father comes in with a reluctant Zeldris and Gelda. Bartra has two paper bags of greasy fast food in his grips and as people settled around Elizabeth he passes out cheeseburgers and fries. Meliodas offers his seat to Bartra but when Elizabeth flinches Bartra refuses it, sitting on the windowsill.

Veronica and Margaret take the floor, leaning back against the far wall while Gelda and Zeldris make a home by the air conditioner. The two families mesh well, with Meliodas interpreting what his family says and her's speaking as they sign. Gelda tries her hand at signing and with Zeldris' approval they sign up for a class Gelda finds at the library called 'Intro to ASL'. Elizabeth feels lighter and better than she has in days as she regards the people important to her.

A nurse knocks and softly calls from the door that visiting hours are over. Meliodas' heart drops. His throat grows tight at the thought of leaving her and of the inevitable sleepless night awaiting him as when it's quiet he can still hear the nine-one-one call repeating. He memorized it, unavoidable after hearing it for hours. In his bleak self-admonition Meliodas misses Elizabeth's request to her father.

Veronica laughs, quipping over her shoulder as she goes "Take care of our girl, Melio." Hearing his old school days name rubs him the wrong way but he's so raw the ire only pricks into his consciousness before fading. Margaret hugs her sister, long and deep, kissing the side of her head and they are both crying by the time they part. Meliodas stands, to say his reluctant goodbyes when Bartra's hand presses down on his shoulder.

"If you don't draw too much attention, or make any drama, the nurses aren't going to care if you stay." The older man pushes him down into the chair once more and he obliges, wide eyed as he looks to Elizabeth for approval. She's gripping hands with Gelda, Elizabeth nodding to whatever Gelda just told her. Zeldris isn't sure what to do and simply gives a little hand flick wave to Elizabeth as he steps around his wife.

"I'll bring you some clothes, pick you up tomorrow or whatever." His brother is heading to the hall when Gelda says her goodbyes and follows. Bartra is last to go, kissing his daughters head and touching her face with both his hands as he mouths to her. Whatever he says makes big tears leak and splash on his fingers. In the end, he kisses her forehead and she nods against him, her hands coming up to touch over his.

"I'm sowwy." She says but Bartra shakes his head, pulling his hands away to sign, "No, I'm sorry." and Bartra waves her to lay down. She does and in a playful, fatherly way, he tucks her in, even pushing the blanket in around her like a cacoon. Elizabeth laughs at him and Meliodas smiles, glad to see something that represented the happy childhood she had with her father.

When he leaves and it's just the two of them again she moves over, untucking on one side to give him space beside her. "Sleep with meh?" She asks and his exhaustion creeps up enough to make itself known. Meliodas, goes to her and the two plan their future together, both declaring their past left behind. No more lists, no more sins and no more dwelling. Meliodas and Elizabeth want to evolve. Their co-dependency and mildly unhealthy attachment aside, their love is pure.

* * *

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline  
Call 1-800-273-8255

Reviews are welcome and very encouraged. They honestly make my day.

I'm on tumblr, if ya wanna chat or see the little extra things I write. The name is JacklynnFrost there too and I mostly just post about SDS. Twitter and Deviantart are under xSamanthrax.


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